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. 















THE REMINISCENCES OF 
FREDERICK AYER 


































































































* 




























































































































































































THE REMINISCENCES OF 


FREDERICK AYER 

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) > 

) > 

) ) 1 

* ) 


BOSTON 

PRIVATELY PRINTED 
1923 


Copyright , by Frederick Ayer 


G.T 



Z). i?. Updike , The Merrymount Press , Boston 

$ 1 ? 2 \ «23 


© Cl A 7 0 9 0 6 8 

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NOTE 


T HESE reminiscences were dictated by Fred¬ 
erick Ayer to his daughter, Beatrice Ayer Pat¬ 
ton, at various times after he was eighty-five 
years old. Mr. Ayer was always reluctant to 
talk about himself, and his descendants owe her a debt 
of gratitude for persuading him to give them this narra¬ 
tive. It is printed here exactly as it was taken down, 
except that the text has been rearranged to make the 
story consecutive and that a few anecdotes dictated to 
others have been included. Here and there dates have 
been added and initials expanded into names, but all 
other interpolated matter has been duly indicated. 

An attempt has been made to clarify the text by cer¬ 
tain footnotes and to confine them closely to that pur¬ 
pose. A list of authorities is given in the Appendix. Spe¬ 
cial acknowledgment is due for help received from Mr. 
Walter F. Brooks’ History of the Fanning Family , and for 
his kind permission to reproduce the portrait of Captain 
Frederick Fanning. 

D. G. 

F. A., JR. 

Boston , December 8,1922. 






































* 




































































CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Connecticut Background 3 

II. “ Gran’f’ther Ayer’s” 13 

III. A Yankee Trader 25 

IV. J. C. Ayer & Company 36 

V. Marriage and a Home 43 

VI. An American Capitalist 52 

VII. Public Service: Second Marriage 60 

VIII. The American Woolen Company 70 

IX. A Youthful Age 76 

81 


Appendix 

































































































































































































ILLUSTRATIONS 


FREDERICK AYER 

Photograph hy Notman , 1910 

THE FANNING HOMESTEAD 
Birthplace of Frederick Ayer 

THE AYER HOMESTEAD 

COLONEL GEORGE AYER 
Uncle of Frederick Ayer 


Frontispiece 


Facing page ^ 


5 




6 ~ 


HOMESTEAD OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK 9 

Grandfather of Frederick Ayer 

CAPTAIN PUNDERSON’S GRIST MILL II ✓ 

“GRAN’F’THER AYER’S” I 3 

CAPTAIN FREDERICK FANNING I 5 

Great-Uncle of Frederick Ayer 

THE OLD RED SCHOOL-HOUSE, PRESTON PLAINS 18 

HEZEKIAH RIPLEY PARKE 22 

Stepfather of Frederick Ayer 

“GRANDMA PARKE” 24 „ 

Mother of Frederick Ayer 

FREDERICK AYER 34 ✓ 

As a Young Man 

cook’s MILLS 36 r 

J. C. AYER & CO., PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT 38 

CORNELIA WHEATON 43 / 

First Wife of Frederick Ayer 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


HON. JAMES COOK 47 

Uncle of Frederick Ayer 

THE LOWELL HOUSE 48 * 

DR. JAMES COOK AYER 65 

Brother of Frederick Ayer 

ELLEN BARROWS BANNING 68 

Second Wife of Frederick Ayer 

LETTER OF FREDERICK AYER 69 

August 18, 1884 

FREDERICK AYER, 1897 76 

Portrait by Benjamin-Constant , 1897 (before alterations ) 

FREDERICK AYER ON “NEWPORT” 78 

“AVALON” 80 / 

Frederick Ayer's Summer Home at Prides Crossing 

MAP OF REGION WHERE FREDERICK AYER WAS BORN 80 


REMINISCENCES 


























































































































I 

THE CONNECTICUT BACKGROUND 


M Y Grandmother Ayer’s name was Hope Fan¬ 
ning. She was born, raised, and married on 
what was known as the Fanning farm, situ¬ 
ated near the Ayer Mills [now called Shew- 
ville], in the northern part of the town of Groton, Con¬ 
necticut, which was included in that portion of the town 
set off and named Ledyard.* My father, Frederick Ayer, 
was born and lived in Ledyard with his father and mother, 
about two miles from this place, and was the son of 
Elisha and Hope Fanning Ayer.*j* 

The first incident of interest in my Grandfather Ayer’s 

*Hope Fanning was born August 14, 1757. Ten years previously her 
father, Thomas Fanning, had bought the farm and built the farmhouse 
(still standing), where both she and her grandson, Frederick Ayer, were 
afterwards born. He also built a sawmill on the opposite side of the road. 
In 1793 the Fanning farm was purchased by Hope’s husband, Elisha Ayer, 
and in 1814 he bought the sawmill, which had gone out of the family. 
Shortly afterwards two of his sons, Elisha, Jr., and Frederick (father of 
Frederick Ayer), settled on the farm and ran the mill. At Elisha Ayer’s 
death, in 1853, the farm passed to the children of his son, Frederick, ows., 
James Cook Ayer, Frederick Ayer, and Lovisa Ayer Moffitt. The two 
brothers gave their shares to their sister, and she afterwards sold the place 
and moved to Iowa. 

The initial mention by Frederick Ayer of the Fanning family is signifi¬ 
cant. Several members of it were persons of some distinction; and not only 
was he proud of them, but he based his social standards upon theirs. Ser¬ 
vice in the Legislature, a friendship with Lafayette, a portrait by Copley, 
command of the maintop of the Bon Homme Richard in her fight with the 
Serapis, voyages to the South Seas, and a Loyalist General who “died at his 
house in Portman Square,” —such incidents as these had their part in giving 
the boy a poise and dignity that were always characteristic of him. 

f Frederick Ayer, Sr., was born August 14, 1792. His father, Elisha Ayer 
(grandfather of Frederick Ayer), was born August 16, 1757, and was fifth 
in descent from John Ayer, of Wiltshire, England, who came to Salisbury, 
Mass., about 1635, and afterwards settled in Haverhill. John Ayer’s grand¬ 
son, also named John, moved to Stonington, Conn., about 1695. 

Elisha Ayer owned about three hundred acres of land. Part of his farm 
is still known as Ayer Hill, and is so designated on the U. S. Topographical 
Survey map. 

[ 3 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


history is that of his being taken prisoner by a British 
man-o’-war during the Revolution, and taken to Que¬ 
bec with two shipmates; he had been privateering along 
the coast in a vessel of which he was half-owner. While 
lying there one night the three dropped quietly over¬ 
board and swam for the American shore, a distance of 
three miles. Two miles from shore one of the party gave 
out. The other two took him between them and all three 
reached the bank. They heard the British oarsmen in 
pursuit, and were only a short distance ahead of them 
when landing. They concealed themselves in the swamp 
so successfully that they were not found by their pur¬ 
suers, whom they heard all the next day canvassing the 
woods. [“On their way home through Canada they were 
fortunate not to meet with anyone who betrayed them. 
Once they stole a boat and made a part of their jour¬ 
ney in that, then sold the boat and continued their jour¬ 
ney on land homeward, finally reaching Boston and then 
his home in Connecticut, where his friends were surprised 
to see him, as they thought him dead. He was not in 
the regular army and never in any battle, whether en¬ 
rolled in the militia I do not know. [He was a private 
in the 1st company of Col. Parsons’ Connecticut Regi¬ 
ment in 1775.] When the British attacked the fort at 
Groton* and burned New London, he, with others that 
were able to bear arms, hastened to defend the fort, but 
did not reach the place in time, the enemy having com¬ 
pleted the work of destruction and retreated.” *j*] 

After Grandfather Ayer’s marriage with Hope Fan¬ 
ning, my grandmother [ June 27,1782], he built the house 

*The massacre at Fort Griswold took place on September 6, 1781, and was 
a part of the operations carried out by a British fleet of thirty-two sail under 
the command of Benedict Arnold, a native of Norwich. 

+ Letter from his grandson, Elisha Ayer, 3rd, to Louise Raynor Ayer, Au¬ 
gust 15, 1897. 





















































































. 













































































































































































CONNECTICUT BACKGROUND 

on his farm in Groton, now Ledyard [about 1793], where 
he spent the remainder of his days. He was a most ener¬ 
getic man and an industrious and thrifty farmer. Neither 
he nor members of his family had holidays, or many 
amusements. It was all work. 

My uncle, Elisha Ayer [born December 8, 1786], 
was at one time engaged to a girl, who broke the engage¬ 
ment later. He turned wild and went to sea. When he 
returned after an absence of several years, he brought 
with him a shipload of Spanish merino sheep, a stallion, 
and lot of mares. He repeated this once or twice, and 
this was the first introduction of fine merino sheep into 
the neighborhood.* They were all put on his father’s 
three farms, and from this source the country for many 
miles around was supplied with this breed of sheep. 
The laws of Spain forbade any exportation of merino 
sheep, and it was only through the connivance of men 
on shore that he succeeded in securing the sheep and 
horses and running them onto his vessel. Through these 
adventures he became quite wealthy, and made some 
display of it at home. On one occasion, at a ball, while 
dancing with Miss Cook, afterwards my mother, in 
a state of some excitement and for the amusement of 
the company, he took off his watch and chain and threw 
them into the open fire which heated the ballroom. 

He was afterwards married and lived on his farm at 
✓ 

* Elisha Ayer’s son, Elisha, 3rd, wrote to Louise Raynor Ayer, August 15, 
1897 : “At the breaking out of the war [1812] my father was in Spain, had 
been importing merino sheep to this country. He took passage to Halifax 
in an English ship, and arriving at that port was ordered to go back to Spain, 
and threatened with being held as a prisoner of war for his temerity in com¬ 
ing there when war was raging between the two nations. He assented to this 
demand, but took passage for some port nearer home. I have forgotten the 
name, but he never got there, for the ship was captured by an American 
privateer, a prize crew put on board and he, being an American, was invited 
on board the privateer and had fine passage into Boston. This privateer had 
been out from Boston twenty-three days and taken twenty-seven prizes.” 

[ 5 ] 


REMINISCENCES 

Northampton, Massachusetts, where he raised a family 
of children. After the death of his wife (whom it is said he 
had greatly misused in her lifetime) he would not sleep in 
his house, but had his bed removed to the loft of his corn 
crib, where he slept for many years. His children were 
Elisha Ayer, 3rd, who afterwards went to Norwich and 
lived there for the rest of his life. He was a machinist. 
The others were Sarah (unmarried), who later used to 
travel with Mrs. J. C. Ayer and Hope. 

The only other brother of my father, George Ayer 
born February 12, 1796], spent his life on his father’s 
lomestead, which he inherited, and one of his daugh¬ 
ters, Lydia, still lives there, married to Mr. Peckham.* 
The other one is the wife of Mr. Griswold of Groton, 
Connecticut. Uncle George was a good, rather slow 
spoken man, who could have had any girl in the neigh¬ 
borhood; but he went to Milltown for his wife and she 
never amounted to anything. After her death, he married 
again — another one of the same kind. He was a colonel 
in the militia and Superintendent of the Indian Reser¬ 
vation for many years. 

My father’s sisters were Hope and Mary Ann, both 
unmarried; Clarina, married to William Halsey, of Po- 
quetanock; Fanny, married to Shipley Halsey of Poque- 
tanock; and Lovisa, married to my maternal uncle, 
James Cook. The Ayers were considered a very handsome 
family, and were famous for their beauty all through the 
state. 

My mother *j* was the daughter of James and Per- 
sis Cook, who lived near Cook’s Mills in the town of 

*The farm passed to her daughter, Grace Peckham, in 1890, and was sold 
by her about 1901. The farmhouse burned down in 1911. 

+ Persis Cook, born May 8,1796. She was sixth in descent from Gregory 
Cooke, who was of Cambridge, Mass., in 1665. Her great-great-grandfather, 
John Cooke, moved from Newton, Mass., to Preston about 1710. 

[ 6 ] 




> 


sO^'■_ ^‘f-cc/c^~v('/i\ yrfye-r- 















































CONNECTICUT BACKGROUND 

Preston, about two miles from Grandfather Ayer’s and 
also from the Fanning farm. Her mother was Persis 
(Herrick) Cook.* James Cook, my maternal grand¬ 
father, lived on his farm at Preston, on which were a 
woolen mill and a sawmill, driven by water power. 
Woolen manufacturing was his specialty.^ His boys, 
Chester, James, Calvin, Nathan, Dwight, Isaac, and 
Cyrus, all had their turn in the mill and on the farm. 
The girls, Christy, Josephine, and Persis, had their turn 
in the mill and at housework. Every farmhouse in that 
part of the country had its loom and spinning wheel 
(wool and flax) and the women of the families worked 
them. Christy Cook married Mr. Asa Gore and moved 
to Norwich, where they lived and died. Josephine mar¬ 
ried a Mr. Enoch Ferre, and lived and died in Middle- 
town, Connecticut. Persis married my father. 

As the Cook nest got too full, the boys lit out. Chester, 
the eldest, went to Rochester, New York, where he ran 
a woolen mill. James and Calvin went to Northampton, 
Massachusetts [in 1820], where they too had a woolen 
mill,J which burned just as Lowell was being improved. 
They moved to Lowell and [in June, 1830] associated 
themselves with the Middlesex Woolen Mills, then to 


*Born August 28, 1774, at Worthington, Mass. She was sixth in descent 
from Henry Herrick, of Salem, born in 1604. It has been claimed that he 
was the son of Sir William Herrick, of Beau Manor, Leicester, and there¬ 
fore a first cousin of Robert Herrick, the poet. Her mother, Olivet (Worth¬ 
ington) Herrick, once crossed the Westfield River on horseback, with a child 
in her arms, on one of the string-pieces of a bridge, the planks having been 
carried off by a freshet. 

+ Both his father and grandfather were described as “farmers” and “ cloth¬ 
iers ” woolen manufacturers). 

X At an early day their father had acquired a six hundred acre tract of 
land in the Western Reserve of Ohio. Prior to 1816 his son James had made 
a trip there, on horseback, to examine and report on it. The father’s plan 
had been to divide this tract among his sons, but owing to James’s unfavor¬ 
able report it was exchanged for the woolen mill at Northampton. 

[ 7 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


be built. They furnished the plans and took the man¬ 
agement of the building, stocking, and running of 
these, the largest woolen mills then in this country, and 
were eminently successful for many years. Under some 
change in the management of these mills, James Cook 
went to Burlington, Vermont, and took the manage¬ 
ment of the Winooski Mills in 1846.* When tired of 
manufacturing he retired and went back to Lowell to 
end his days.J He was married to my aunt, Lovisa 
Ayer. Calvin Cook married Eunice Crary and went to 
Waterloo, New York, where he had charge of the large 
woolen mills there as long as he lived. Nathan Cook 
married Lucy Avery and went into the woolen busi¬ 
ness in Greenville, Connecticut, with James Ripley, and 
subsequently retired to his farm in Preston, where he 
lived the balance of his life. Isaac married Abby Kim¬ 
ball, remained at the old homestead, and ran the mill 
as long as he lived. Dwight married Miss Abby Amelia 
Avery, moved to Norwich, and was interested in sev¬ 
eral woolen mills. Cyrus died, unmarried, while a young 
man. 

The neighbors used to drive their sheep to the pond 
near Grandfather Cook’s to wash them for shearing. 

*A letter from Frederick Ayer to his aunt, Hope Ayer, dated Syracuse, 
September 4, 1847, refers to a visit to the Cooks in Burlington: “A few 
days after I wrote you before I went to Burlington & stayed some three 
days — had a eccelent visit, found the folks all enjoying health, life, & spirits, 
they have a great deal to say about your affairs in Connecticut. ... We rode 
about some & saw some of the Lyons of Burlington, but spent most of the 
time at home. ... I sent the Draft [$25.50] on F & N Donnelly & Co our 
Bankers in N. Y. & it ought to be worth a premium in Norwich of from 
l A to Yz pr ct but if it is not as current in Norwich as a Bank Draft re¬ 
turn it & I will send you a Draft on the American Exchange Bank in New 
[York.]” 

t As a matter of fact he was quite active for a considerable period after his 
return to Lowell. For a year he was agent of the Middlesex Corporation 
and then became president of the Lowell Mutual Fire Insurance Company. 
In 1858 he was elected mayor of the city. 

[ 8 ] 

































































































































' 




















CONNECTICUT BACKGROUND 


The process was to lead a sheep into the water until his 
feet were off bottom, wash him and squeeze the wool 
until he was clean, then let him run out. Mr. Franklin 
Parks had in his flock an old, curly-horned buck-sheep. 
Mother, a young girl about twelve, was standing by to 
watch the process of washing, and Mr. Parks said to 
her: “Passy, if you can wash that buck, you may have 
him.” Passy unhesitatingly stepped into the pen, took 
the buck by the horns, marched him into the water nearly 
up to her armpits, gave him a thorough washing, and 
led him out and home, much to Mr. Parks’ disgust. 

My Grandfather Cook was a very strong Episcopalian 
and was much devoted to an Episcopal clergyman preach¬ 
ing in Poquetanock at the time Father and Mother were 
married [June 9,1817]. My father did not believe in said 
clergyman, but submitted to the marriage, performed by 
him at Grandfather Cook’s, and then took his bride to 
another minister, in whom he had confidence, and was 
married a second time, saying that he was not going to 
bring up a houseful of bastards, because he was not regu¬ 
larly married. Soon after this marriage they settled on 
the old Fanning farm, then owned by Grandfather Ayer. 

In connection with running this farm, my father also 
ran the Ayer Mills, consisting of a shingle mill, saw¬ 
mill, grist mill, carding mill, wagon factory, and black¬ 
smith shop, and was a very hard worker. Overwork is 
supposed to have been the cause of his early death. In 
the War of 1812 he was commissioned in a company 
raised in his neighborhood, and served but a short time 
before the war was ended.* My uncle, James Cook, 
was corporal in the same company. 

There was one cold season—I think 1814—when 

* “ Commissioned ” sergeant in the 8th Regiment, Connecticut Infantry, 
Lt.-Col. William Belcher commanding, November 16, 1814. 

[ 9 ] 


REMINISCENCES 

the crops in our neighborhood were very light and the 
immediate surrounding country suffered for food. My 
father chartered a vessel, went to New York from New 
London, loaded it with corn, and distributed it in the 
neighborhood, for which I suppose he was paid. 

My first recollection of my father was one sunny, and 
I believe Sunday, morning; he was sitting on the steps 
of his house looking across the road at a flock of sheep 
on the opposite knoll. He took me on his back with a 
pail of salt in his hand and went over to salt the sheep. 
As soon as he entered the enclosure, the sheep huddled 
around and jumped on him, hitting me with their feet 
and noses, much to my discomfort. He threw the salt 
in handfuls on the rocks and grass, and the sheep left us. 
My next recollection of him was walking home with 
him from the group of mills of which he had charge. 
He sat down to rest several times, although the dis¬ 
tance was short, complaining that he was tired. And my 
last and only other recollection of him was when old 
Dr. Downer, of Preston City, came to visit him and bled 
him. I remember his lying on the bed with his arm 
stretched out over the side, seeing the doctor bandage 
and then tap the vein, and the splashing of the blood 
on the yellow bowl. This must have been very near the 
end of his last sickness. He died of overwork. These 
things must have happened in the summer or fall before 
I was three years old.* The events I have set down were 
calculated to make an impression on a youthful mind, 
which is the only way I can account for my very distinct 
memory of them. 

After my father’s death the old house was very lone¬ 
some, and Mother, alone with her four little children 

* Frederick Ayer was bom December 8, 1822. His father died December 21, 
1825. 

[ 1° ] 















































- 






























































































































/ 




. 













r 


<_ //<// 






CONNECTICUT BACKGROUND 

and a sixteen year old pauper servant girl, Lyddy Roth, 
was full of fears. (I remember two or three of us slept at 
that time in a trundle bed that pushed under Mother’s 
in the daytime.) Mother heard strange noises at night 
and somehow made up her mind that my uncle, George 
Ayer, came around to frighten her, wanting, for some 
reason, to drive her out of the house. Uncle George was 
not the kind of man to do such a thing as this, but 
Mother “knew” he did. She carried the feeling so far that 
she refused to be buried in the same cemetery as Uncle 
George. That is why she lies in the Avery, instead of the 
Ayer, Burying Ground. 

When we left our birthplace, Mother secured a tene¬ 
ment for herself and four children in a part of the house 
owned and occupied by Captain Punderson, in Preston. 
This proved to be a very troublesome place for Mother, 
as Captain Punderson was the owner of a grist mill and 
pond, all near our residence. My brother James [born 
May 5, 1819] and I were bewitched to be around the 
pond, and persisted in throwing large stones into Cap¬ 
tain Punderson’s flume, which fed his overshot wheel. 
Sometimes the stones would clog the wheel and on some 
occasions knocked out some of the buckets, all of which 
made the association disagreeable.* 

My brother’s pranks and mine were too numerous 
to mention. On one occasion a neighbor by the name of 
Button was harvesting and, as was the custom of that 
time, had rum and water, sweetened with molasses, for 
himself and the hands. I was interested in the process 
of harvesting, followed the reapers, and getting thirsty 
drank freely from the pail. I soon grew tired, and was 
told that I finally gave up following the reapers, lying 

*The mill-stone from Capt. Punderson’s mill is now in the sun room of 
Louise Ayer Gordon’s house, at Lincoln. 

[ ” 1 


REMINISCENCES 

down on a bundle of grain, and one of the men carried 
me home, fast asleep. My brother and I were considered 
quite uncontrollable by my mother, and too much for 
her management. 

My father and mother had five children: Frederick, 
who died at the age of eight months, James, Fanny, 
myself, and Lovisa. When we left Captain Punderson’s 
house, Mother took James and Lovisa with her to 
Grandfather Cook’s. She kept house in the basement of 
this house of which the sides and front were above 
ground. I was sent to Grandfather Ayer’s because 
Mother could not manage me, and Fanny stayed there 
with me two or three months at first. Then she, too, 
went to live with Mother. Mother said she used to 
worry dreadfully about my life at Grandfather Ayer’s. 
That was one reason she married again—to give me 
a home. My sister Fanny died from typhus fever, when 
she was sixteen [November 23, 1835]. She was a very 
handsome and very attractive girl. She was my play¬ 
mate. 


( 


[ 12 ] 













































































































' 

















. 















































* 


.V 

c 

V 


















II 

“GRAN’FTHER AYER’S” 


the time I lived at Grandfather Ayer’s, the 
/ \ family consisted of Grandfather and Grand- 
/ V mother Ayer, Aunts Hope and Mary Ann, 
and Uncle George. The inside plan of the 
house was thus: A large kitchen, a parlor, the “east 
room” (a sort of large reception room), Grandfather and 
Grandmother’s bedroom, and Uncle George’s bedroom, 
on the first floor; upstairs, a large chamber occupied by 
my two aunts, a guest chamber, and a long room over 
the kitchen. This room contained several beds and was 
occupied by the help and myself. The loom and wool 
wheel always stood in one corner. The flax wheel, in 
the attic, was run by the old slave woman, Phileney. 

Aunt Hope was a lovely, motherly woman, who 
would have done a good deal for me if she could. I re¬ 
member one winter when I was very sick with a cold, 
the family, afraid I was going to die, sent for the doc¬ 
tor. When he came, he found me in Aunt Hope’s bed, 
and said: “In bed with Hopey, eh? I guess you’ll git 
well!” 

Grandfather bought for Aunts Hope and Mary Ann 
the Swan farm, adjoining his on the west. They lived 
there for a short time. This was after I left them. It did 
not suit Aunt Mary Ann. Aunt Mary Ann never took 
any interest in me or in anything connected with the old 
home. She thought herself very handsome and, even at 
the time I lived at Grandfather Ayer’s, used to spend 
the time visiting Aunt Lovisa Cook, in Lowell. This 
journey was made by stage and took the greater part 
of three days: Norwich to Providence, Providence to 
Boston, and Boston to Lowell. Finally she transferred 

[ ] 


REMINISCENCES 

her headquarters entirely to Lowell, where she died 
about 1889. 

Living near Grandfather Ayer’s were his two sisters, 
old maids, Olive and Eunice; and nicer, primmer little 
old ladies I never saw. They were always glad to see 
me whenever I went to their house. Farther down, on the 
same (east) side of us, by the old Ayer Burying Ground, 
lived Joseph Ayer, Grandfather’s brother. He was much 
like Grandfather Ayer, with some of the harshness left 
out. He had a fine family of children. 

Grandmother Ayer was a very amiable, genial, lovely 
old lady. Everybody loved her. Grandfather Cook was 
very fond of her and used to visit her frequently. She 
was very deaf and usually sat in the chimney corner 
knitting. When Grandfather Cook called, she would say 
to him: “Now, Jeems, draw your chair right up, and tell 
me all you know!”* One of her neighbors, by the name 
of Main, circulated some gossip about her, of which she 
heard. Shortly after this, one of the boys came in and re¬ 
ported to her that Mr. Main was standing out in the horse 
shed, very wet and very cold. She sent word for him to 
come in, which he did, and stood up in front of the fire 
without any remarks passing between them. After a few 
minutes of silence, Grandmother looked up at him and 
said: “Mr. Main, are n’t you easy in my company?” She 
was very contented at home and seldom went out to the 
neighbors. She took snuff, whereas Grandmother Cook 
smoked a pipe.Grandfather smoked cigars very sparingly. 
One would last him several days. Most of the house help 
were Indian girls. Last time I was there with my son James 
in 1911, a woman named Rachel came up to see me. She 
had worked for Grandfather Ayer when I lived there. 

* Frederick Ayer said she was “a very placid, calm woman,” about five feet 
ten, and weighing well over two hundred pounds. 

[ H ] 





























: 







































t.fJre-c/ert c/c ^arv/vl/i cjf 

SjrcjiV-A.t/i c/e {free/ercc/c. < 'Syr 





“GRAN’FTHER AYERS" 


Grandfather Ayer was a very industrious man, and 
never could endure to see anyone about him idle. 
Though only four years old, with him I never was too 
young to work. There would be stones to pick up in 
the garden, sticks to pick up around the place, and when 
this was done to perfection he would always find some¬ 
thing else that a boy of my size could do. I can’t remem¬ 
ber that I was ever too small to drive the cows to pas¬ 
ture and bring them home, to carry luncheon and water 
to the men in the field, to bring in wood, build fires, 
turn the spit, and help at all sorts ofwork about the house 
and kitchen. I could always feed the cattle, and it was 
early found that I could milk, which called for early ris¬ 
ing and late work. My grandfather had large flocks of 
merino sheep, which are very delicate, and had to be 
housed during storms and in winter, and to be fed on 
turnips or carrots. My evening’s work during the winter 
was to help the men slice up several bushels ofthese roots 
each evening. The Groton Indians used to pass our place 
in going to and from Preston City, where they got their 
rum and tobacco, and they generally stopped on their 
way to quench their thirst with cider, which was always 
free and abundant, and which it was my duty to draw 
for them. After school in winter I had to go to a barn a 
mile and a half from the house, through a lonely wood, 
to feed a band of sheep that were kept there. This barn 
was on the Indians’ route to their reservation and I was 
always expecting to put a pitchfork into one of them 
who had got too tired to go further and taken lodgings 
for the night in the hay. 

One of the squaws used to spin flax in our attic and 
had crazy spells, would mutter to herself and was really 
quite wild, but not considered dangerous. Her peculiari¬ 
ties, however, made a deep impression on my young 

[ 15 ] 


REMINISCENCES 

mind, and did not add to my happiness. She spun a good 
deal of the thread used by the family, and all the linen. 
The tow she spun was made into shirts for me. As they 
were never washed until I had given them a good wear¬ 
ing, the memory of their scratching is very distinct. 

The flax was not cut but pulled by the roots and put 
into water, where it lay for several weeks until the shell 
of the stalk was partially decayed; then taken out, spread 
and dried. The shells were whipped out, handful by hand¬ 
ful, over a board shaped for that purpose. Then the flax 
was broken in a breaker made of wooden knives pass¬ 
ing up and down between each other and hetchelled by 
whipping it into a bunch of sharp wires and drawing it 
through. This separated the tow and broken shell from 
the flax. The tow came out in a loose mass and was the 
shorter and coarser fibre and the flax the longer; this 
tow, with all the shell remnants in it, was spun and made 
into my shirts. 

Grandfather Ayer did not believe in fun. There was 
always so much to do that the time was filled up with¬ 
out it. At school, however, in winter, I used to slide on 
the ice. A good many of the other boys had sleds and 
skates, but I never could afford a pair of skates. I had 
a little box in which I had some pennies—I don’t 
know how I ever got them—and I used to count them 
over every little while. I would not have had any use for 
it, but what I wanted was money — some of my own. 
I remember once hearing that a bone-button factory in 
Greenville would buy old bones. I hunted around the 
place until I had collected about a half bushel of bones 
of various kinds. Then one day when Uncle George 
was going to Norwich on business, I told him about my 
collection and asked him to take it to the button-factory 
and sell it for me. I was anticipating getting quite a 

[ *6 ] 


“GRAN’F’THER AYER’S” 

fortune from it. When Uncle George came back, the fac¬ 
tory had refused to take the bones. They were season- 
cracked and of no use. 

At one time there was a muster of the militia to take 
place five miles from us, and I was finishing up the bind¬ 
ing and shucking of a field of buckwheat. The day 
before, I asked Grandmother to intercede for me for a 
permit to go. She said she was afraid Grandfather would 
never consent, unless I could get the buckwheat all up. 
That night, by moonlight, I worked until one o’clock, 
which won me permission to walk five miles to the mus¬ 
ter the next day. I must have been about eleven years old. 

About a year later there was a general muster at New 
London, where I persuaded my grandfather to take me. 
On the edge of the village we stopped at the house of 
a Mrs. Taylor, an acquaintance of my grandfather’s, 
located directly in front of the parade. Mrs. Taylor was 
out in the front yard watching the parade with a few 
friends, when my grandfather approached. She greeted 
him with enthusiasm and, exclaiming, cried: “Squire 
Ayer, if there had been as many men here at the battle 
of Fort Groton as there are to-day, I should n’t have had 
to take off my petticoats for gun-wadding!” 

In the Whitney family, who were neighbors, there 
were two very pretty young ladies. They came to Grand¬ 
father Ayer’s with their horse and wagon and asked that 
I might drive them to Poquetanock, which I was per¬ 
mitted to do. Their old horse was very slow and would 
hardly go at all without whipping. The whip was worn 
up so short that I could only reach the horse by leaning 
over the dashboard, and as a comer of my shirt stuck out 
at least in one place through the seat of my trousers, the 
position required to encourage the horse on his journey 
caused me great embarrassment. 

[ >7 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


The red schoolhouse on the [Preston] Plains was also 
the meeting-house, and we frequently had services there. 
Mr. Roswell Parks always led the singing; he was about 
eighty years old and had only one tooth, which was 
very prominent. He was a great snuff taker: when he 
rose to sing, he would always take out his snuff-box, 
rap it, take a lusty pinch, and pitch the tune thus: 
“Baaaa-a-a!”—much to the amusement of the younger 
members of the congregation. 

Lorenzo Dow was at this time a travelling preacher of 
much notoriety, and on one occasion it was announced 
that he would preach at our schoolhouse. The house 
being small, the day pleasant, and the congregation ex¬ 
pected large, our deacons built a platform between the 
road and the schoolhouse for him to stand on. A large 
congregation assembled, Mr. Dow approached in an 
old four-wheeled top-buggy, very rusty, drawn by a 
very bony, poor old horse, stopped in front of the plat¬ 
form, threw down the reins, stood up, took off his hat and 
set it on top of the buggy, declined to alight, much to 
the deacons’ discomfiture, and proceeded at once to busi¬ 
ness. After a little prayer. Uncle Roswell pitched his tune 
and sang with his choir, when Mr. Dow immediately 
proceeded with his sermon. Sermon finished, he picked 
up his reins, put on his hat, gave the old horse a jerk, and 
left without even saying good-bye to the deacons. 

The most eccentric character of our neighborhood 
was Uncle Elkanah Fanning [who died December 3, 
1818]. He occasionally indulged in the use of “West 
India goods” (rum and molasses), and used to say that 
when he died he wanted to be buried in a chestnut coffin 
so that he might go snapping and cracking through 
Hell. Once, while he was hoeing in his garden, a man 
rode up on horseback, stopped, and said: “I would like 

[ is ] 














































“GRAN’FTHER AYER’S” 

to inquire the way to Mystic.” Elkanah deliberately 
hauled up his hoe, rested on the handle, looked at the 
man and said, “I have no objection!” Another man 
inquired of him the way to “ Little Rest.” He pointed 
to the house of Jonas Winter in the distance and said; 
“There’s the least rest in that house of any place in this 
country.” Winter was famous for working his family, 
help, and teams to the last extremity. 

Elkanah’s brother, Charles Fanning, Esq., lived in 
Jewett City and was a most exemplary man.* He repre¬ 
sented his district in the General Court when it was 
an honor to do so. I remember him as one of the few 
people I ever saw who habitually wore the old-fashioned 
buckled shoes, long stockings, buff waistcoat and blue 
coat with silver buttons and white, pigtailed wig. 

When I was almost twelve years old, my mother 
married Hezekiah R. Parke, a tailor [August 3, 1834], 
and moved to Jewett City. The occasion of her mar¬ 
riage was an epoch in my life, as I wore my first suit 
of clothes to the wedding. (He made the suit.) Up to 
that time. Grandfather Ayer’s worn out trousers cut off 
at the calf, had been thought good enough. The next 
year Mother took me from Grandfather Ayer’s to live 
with her, where I would have better schooling and ad¬ 
vantages. 


* Charles Fanning - , born December 16, 1749, moved to Jewett City early 
in life and married Anne Brewster. He enlisted in the Continental Army 
May 8, 1775, and served seven years and eight months, commencing with 
the rank of sergeant and rising to that of captain. He was at Long Island, 
Germantown, Valley Forge, Monmouth, Stony Point, and Yorktown. After 
the war he became one of the pioneer merchants of Jewett City. He was an 
original member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and sat for many years 
in the Legislature. When Lafayette visited the United States in 1 824, on his 
journey from New York to Boston, he called on Captain Fanning at his 
house and warmly greeted him as “ Comrade Fanning.” 

Charles Fanning died March 22, 1837. His estate was inventoried at over 
$25,000. 

[ l 9 ] 


REMINISCENCES 

A year or so later we moved to Greenville,* where 
I went to school, and Mr. Parke went West to hunt a 
new home and greater business prosperity. Parke was 
a great Methodist and in his travels about the country 
had found some most congenial fellow Methodists at 
Baldwinsville. I don’t know that they could pray as hard 
as he could, but they were good enough at it. He decided 
to move us all there. The family were living pretty close 
to the quick, and to keep expenses down on the trip it 
was decided to charter a small sloop—perhaps 30 feet 
long—to take us to Albany, and our household effects 
and the family were embarked at Norwich. I don’t re¬ 
member how longwe were on the way to New York, but 
we were two weeks going from New York to Albany. 
There were very few houses or villages in those days and 
our food supply used to run pretty low. When we caught 
sight of a likely house we used to run ashore, tie up at 
the bank and see if we could buy some bread or milk. 
It was in the summer, and drifting under the Palisades 
it was very hot, and we were compelled to replenish our 
stores many times. At Albany our effects were trans¬ 
ferred to a canal boat bound for Syracuse, and on arrival 
there we were dumped on the towpath to await the boat 
for Baldwinsville, which came the next day. I watched 
the stores on the towpath during the night. 

Baldwinsville proved to be a pleasant country village, 
where I found and attended a good private school for 
two winters, and drove teams on the Erie and Oswego 
canals during the summers. I was always a restless sort 
of person, always had had to work, and besides my 
services were needed by the family as a breadwinner. 
There was a lawyer in the town named Parker and I 

*A letter to Frederick Ayer from his brother, James Cook Ayer, dated 
Lowell, April 23, 1838, was written in verse and addressed to Greenville. 

[ 20 ] 


“GRAN’F’THER AYER’S” 


went to him for a job. “Well/’ he said, “if you know 
anything about horses I can get you one.” Ever since I 
could remember I had had a great fancy for horses, to 
ride or drive, and so I took a job as driver on the canal.* 
Our boats carried two pairs of horses in the front, one 
pair at a time, and the family and help in the stern. 
There were two drivers to a boat; each had a pair of 
horses to drive and to care for, one pair being in the boat 
while the other was on the towpath. The space between 
the stable and the family house was used for freight, 
and the drivers were expected to do their full share of 
loading and unloading, which was frequently very heavy 
work. The hours of driving were four on and four off. 
Rain or storms never interrupted the work. It was pretty 
rough sometimes, I can tell you. 

After several years in Baldwinsville, where Persis 
Parke and William Ayer Parke were born,*)* my mother 
found it difficult to get work enough out of Mr. Parke 
to support their little family. They sold their house for 
$500 and joined a community in Skaneateles, headed 
and engineered by John Collins and known as the Col¬ 
lins Community. Another family of her acquaintance 
in Baldwinsville preceded them and gave such good 
accounts of the community that my mother decided 
to take this step, as Mr. Parke and the little family had 
become too much of a load for her to carry. With the 
$500 from their house paid into the community, a con¬ 
tract was entered into with Mr. Collins and his board 
of managers to take care of them during their lifetime, 

*So great was Frederick Ayer’s fondness for horses that he several times 
said that if it had not been for the influence and constant stimulation of 
his brother James — largely in the form of letters — he believed he might 
have become a professional jockey. 

f William Ayer Parke was born in Baldwinsville, August 18, 1842; Persis 
Ayer Parke was born in Jewett City, February 2, 1837. 

[ 21 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


they giving their services, such as they might be, in 
addition. The community consisted mostly of families 
who appeared to be respectable, but poor; and unlike 
the Oneida Community, each family retained its family 
organization. Mr. Collins did not succeed in raising 
money to carry out his plan, and I believe my mother, 
with her brood, was one of the first to leave. It was there 
they became acquainted and very warm friends with 
Mr. Parrish Johnson and his family of wife and two sons, 
Parrish and Grove; and through Mr. Johnson’s assist¬ 
ance she succeeded in getting the $500 she had paid 
in. From there they went onto a farm near Skaneate- 
les, where Lovisa became acquainted with Mr. Arden 
Moffitt and married him [May 27, 1846]. Mr. Moffitt 
looked very much like Donald Gordon, but taller and 
heavier. He was a farmer, very lazy, very kind, and es¬ 
pecially fond of horses. He would fool round a neigh¬ 
bor’s sick horse all day long, neglecting his own busi¬ 
ness, and farming for him was not a success. After many 
ups and downs in the West, we persuaded Mr. and Mrs. 
Moffitt to come East and take up their residence on 
the old Fanning farm, which had been left by Grand¬ 
father Ayer, without the mills, to James, Lovisa and me. 
After a while Moffitt again became restless and went 
West, and we deeded the house to Lovisa. But she 
wanted to follow him, so she sold the farm and with the 
money went West. She went out to Iowa where he was 
keeping a livery stable, and lived there the rest of her 
days. [She died in Creston, Iowa, January 16, 1901.] 
From Skaneateles they moved to a farm further south, 
where Mr. Parke became more than ever absorbed in 
religion and spiritualism — spiritualism predominating, 
until he became absolutely crazy, of which Mother sent 
word to me—then in Syracuse—and I went and found 

[ M 3 



,/ylf V 

i" 


& 













“GRAN’FTHER AYER’S” 


Mr. Parke very wild and uncontrollable. I immediately 
took him in my vehicle to Syracuse, where I kept him 
over-night, and the next day took him to the Utica In¬ 
sane Asylum, where he remained a year or more, when he 
was released, but never returned to live with the family. 
He had studied phrenology, which was then a going 
science, and with my assistance procured charts and the 
necessary paraphernalia for lecturing on that subject and 
examining heads.* 

He travelled from place to place and pursued this 
occupation until he died [August 23,1869]. I returned to 
the farm, sold their little effects, except such as Mother 
wanted for her housekeeping, and took her and the two 
children to Baldwinsville, where they occupied a hired 
tenement until after I went to Lowell and was married 
[December 15, 1858], when I took her home to live with 
me. Persis went to school in Syracuse and William, after 
a short experience in McCarthy’s store, went to the 
Phillips Academy in Andover.*j* 

* He was, incidentally, an enthusiastic genealogist, and under date of Sep¬ 
tember 8,1859, received a letter from Lord Wensleydale (Baron Parke) rela¬ 
tive to their presumably common ancestry in England, together with a copy 
of the Parke coat of arms. 

t“ Persis was subsequently married to a provision dealer in St. Louis [Lan¬ 
sing J. Lansing], with whom she lived until he died [February 3, 1875], and 
then taught school during the balance of her life. [She died August 8, 1899.] 
William, after a year at the Phillips Academy, got a position in Arnold Sc 
Constable’s store in New York. When the Civil War broke out, he and 
a friend, as lieutenant and captain, respectively, formed a troop of cavalry 
[the 6th New York] and went to the War, where he served three years and 
eleven months under Sheridan. He got sick and was obliged to resign his 
position in the cavalry, and after about a year recovered his health and took 
charge of a lumber company in Pensacola, Florida, in which I was inter¬ 
ested. After the lumber company was sold, he took charge of some cotton 
plantations on one of the islands off the coast of South Carolina which my 
brother and I had leased. From there he went to New York City, where he 
started a lumber business which he has continued to this date. His wife is 
Maria Bayard Moore, of Hempstead, New York.” Frederick Ayer. 

They were married August 5, 1874. She died September 4, 1921. He died 
March 8, 1923. 

[ 2 3 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


My mother remained in my family during the bal¬ 
ance of her life. [She died July 23, 1880.] She was a 
very extraordinary woman with great ambition, great 
industry, always full of fun, and a most extraordinarily 
devoted mother. She made a home wherever she went. She 
added greatly to the enjoyment of my family through 
her cheerful and jolly disposition. The neighbors liked 
to come in and sit with her and the other members of 
the family and sew afternoons, when she would keep 
the whole party laughing with her jokes and stories. She 
was buried in the Avery Burying Ground in “Presson,” 
Connecticut, where Mr. Parke had been buried before 
her. On account of her dislike of George Ayer, she had 
her first husband’s, her oldest son Frederick’s, and her 
daughter Fanny’s remains removed to the family lot in 
the Avery Burying Ground.* The headstones of the 
three above named persons were left, and still remain, 
in the Ayer Burying Ground. 


*The “Avery Burying Ground” was formerly called the Preston Plains 
Cemetery. On December 20, i860, Lot No. 27 w r as conveyed to James Cook 
Ayer and Frederick Ayer — presumably to enable their mother to make 
the removals referred to in the text. 

[ 2 4 ] 






Ill 

A YANKEE TRADER 


W HEN I felt that I could not afford any 
more time for school, I looked for perma¬ 
nent employment and secured a place in 
the country store of John H. Tomlinson 
& Co. at $72 a year. I was “the boy,” and there were 
six or eight men salesmen. I took a keen interest in the 
business and was always ready to do any kind of work. 
The clerks were glad to let me do anything that would 
relieve them, like opening cases of new goods, in which 
way I soon became familiar with all the goods that came 
into the store. After a year or so I was sent to Canton to 
a branch store, the partner and manager of which was 
C. Hullbert Toll. Mr. Toll was not a merchant, and I 
soon had the management of the store. This was a much 
smaller enterprise than the one at Baldwinsville and 
did not satisfy my ambitions. I asked to be returned to 
Baldwinsville, which was done. Mr. Tomlinson was a 
very energetic and lively man; he kept things moving, 
and it was a pleasure to work with him. 

James L. Voorhees of Lysander, father-in-law of Mr. 
Tomlinson, owned large tracts of pine and farming land. 
He cut and rafted the timber from his and other lands, 
of which he bought the stumpage,in the canal. The only 
market for such timber at that time was New York City. 
Voorhees was his own raftsman to Albany, where the 
logs were let into the Hudson River and re-bunched for 
New York. There he found ready sale for them for cash, 
with which he returned home and paid the bills which 
had accumulated during the logging season. On one oc¬ 
casion after selling his logs, he went to the Astor House 
for dinner without change of clothes. Being late, the 

[ ^5 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


principal diners had left the room, and he was given the 
end of a table by himself Shortly after he took his seat, 
dinner was brought for a party of young bucks and put 
on the same table, a short distance from him. The bucks 
amused themselves by poking fun at the old codger in 
his rafting garb, to which he paid no attention for a time; 
but finally it became too hard to stand, when Voorhees 
arose, stepped up onto the table, walked down to where 
the young men’s dinner was spread, and walked through 
it, sweeping it off both sides of the table with his feet. 
When remonstrated with by the waiters and men from 
the office who wanted to know his name and address, 
he said: “I am the Tall Pine of Lysander! Give me your 
bill.” On his return from New York with his pockets 
full of money, he would walk home twelve miles from 
the point of public transportation rather than hire a team 
to take him. 

Voorhees’ lumbermen got all their supplies at Tom¬ 
linson’s store. They would come with large teams and 
bring their families about two or three times a year to 
do their trading. On one occasion a clerk by the name 
of Smith sold one of the men a very large cheese — 
about two and one-half feet in diameter. It was one of 
a cargo of cheeses that had been sunk in the canal and 
raised by Mr. Tomlinson. The buyer, a man about thirty 
years old and about six feet four, with extraordinarily 
long arms reaching below his knees, lived in the town of 
Granby, several miles away. The next day he marched 
into the store with the cheese on his shoulder, strode 
up to the counter where Smith was standing, slammed 
the cheese down onto the counter and said: “Smith, by 
God, when you sell me another cheese, don’t sell me one 
that ’ll git to Granby before I do! ” 

Mr. Voorhees was one of the wealthy men of that 

[ *6 ] 


A YANKEE TRADER 

section, and contracted to build a large hotel in Syra¬ 
cuse. Mr. Philo N. Rust, a well known winebibber of 
Syracuse, and a splendid hotel keeper, was engaged to 
run it for him. After John, son of President Van Buren, 
had painted Europe red with Prince Edward (afterwards 
Edward VII), he used to come to Syracuse to visit Philo 
N. Rust, proprietor of the Syracuse House, and after 
that proprietor of the Voorhees House where I boarded. 
They were very congenial and had royal old sprees to¬ 
gether. At the age of about sixty years Mr. Rust had 
a shock, which confined him to the house for several 
months. There was in Syracuse a Presbyterian deacon by 
the name of Dana who was celebrated for his long-faced 
piety. Rust recovered sufficiently to sit out on the side¬ 
walk in front of his hotel in the sun, when one morning 
Deacon Dana came along and, accosting Mr. Rust, said: 
Mr. Rust, you’ve had a very narrow call—a very close 
call, Mr. Rust!” Rust looked up in Dana’s face and 
said: “ Deacon Dana, what if I had died? I’ve had more 
fun in my sixty years than you’ll have if you live to be 
one hundred and sixty!” 

It was the custom at that time to pay all sorts of help 
by orders on stores, and Mr. Tomlinson started a gen¬ 
eral store for the purpose of paying the help who were 
building the hotel. His brother-in-law, Sam Sharp,an old 
merchant, was put in charge of the store. After it had been 
running for several months, Mr. Tomlinson asked me to 
go into it. I objected because Sharp and I did not agree 
in our methods of business, but Tomlinson said I should 
have my own way and that Sharp should not interfere 
with me, so I went. Tomlinson shortly saw how things 
were going and sent Sharp back to Baldwinsville, giving 
me entire charge of the store. I had by this time got 
to be something of a salesman, and when people came 

[ 2 7 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


with orders I would try to interest them in our goods. 
With such others as naturally dropped in I got up 
quite a little clientage, and quite a little business out¬ 
side the orders. The orders were not always brought by 
the laborers or mechanics, but frequently got into the 
hands of attorneys and nice families, of whom, when 
they came to trade out their orders, I would generally 
make friends and customers. Finally, when I was some¬ 
where between the ages of twenty and twenty-one 
[1842-43], Mr. Tomlinson proposed to take me into 
partnership, which I thought a great strike as well as a 
great compliment. I wanted to have something more 
than my individuality to represent me in the concern, 
so I went to Grandfather Ayer, Uncle James Cook, and 
my brother James, each of whom loaned me money 
amounting in all to about $600, all of which I paid 
back out of the concern. Mr. Tomlinson finally became 
so much interested in outside operations that he gave 
no attention whatever to the store and its requirements. 


FREDERICK AYER TO HIS GRANDFATHER, ELISHA AYER 

Syracuse Sept 26, 184.5. 

Dear. Grand. Father, 

It is now 10, o.clock in the evening & I have just 
returned from Baldwins Ville where I went this morn¬ 
ing. . . . Uncle [George Ayer] saw the account of the 
divadend by the Baldwins Ville consernfor the two last 
years [1843-45] which was $18,000.00. It is one of the 
oldest and best established mercantile houses in the 
County and by connecting the two [ i.e . the Baldwins- 
ville and Syracuse branches] it makes a much safer in¬ 
vestment and places our facilities far, very far , ahead 

[ 28 ] 


A YANKEE TRADER 

of any I know. You will recolect hearing me say that I 
did not exactly feel like taking upon myselfe the respon- 
sabilities of this consern, and it was upon this ground 
that I made the sudgestion that Mr. Lusk one of the 
partners at Baldwins ville who is an older & more ex¬ 
perienced business man, should exchange places with 
me thereby lessening the responsability on my part— 
this was favourably looked upon and Mr. Lusk accord¬ 
ingly came, then the question arose whether I could be 
of more service here or at B. Ville & careing but little 
which place I stoped at I left it for the rest to decide 
it was finaly decided somewhat to my satisfaction that 
I could be of the most service here, Messrs. Smith & 
Toll are the partners at B. Ville and will take charge 
of affairs there, and Messrs. Lusk & Ayer here. Mr. 
Tomlinson will spend part of his time here & part at 
the other place looking after both ends of the route . . . 

Oct. 6tj}> . . 

We have rec d a good stock of fall goods and our busi¬ 
ness moves off most admirably; our sales for the last two 
weeks here amounts to $8530.00. At Baldwins ville 
about two thirds as much making $14216.00 at both 
places. I have rec d one thousand Dollars each from 
James Cook & J. C. Ayer with what you let me have & 
what I can bring to bear of my own I think will answer 
my purpose. . . . 

At the time of the great potato famine in Ireland 
[1846-47] I was sleeping under the counter in the store 
on Salina Street. This was before the telegraph was in 
general use. Tomlinson had arranged a communication 
from Ne w York by which he hoped to get the first reliable 
news in regard to the extent of the famine. 

[ 2 9 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


Other operators in grain, etc., had done the same thing, 
the object being to secure large quantities of grain, flour, 
and food products before the news should advance the 
prices. One night, about midnight, a furious rattling on 
the store door woke me: it was by the messenger ex¬ 
pected by Tomlinson. He brought the definite news of 
the famine and told me to get Mr. Tomlinson there as 
soon as the Lord would let me. I hustled down to Tom¬ 
linson’s house, woke him and told him the news, and he 
followed me very closely back to the store, buttoning 
his clothes as he went. In the meantime the messenger 
had procured a pair of fast horses in a light hitch and 
they drove with all speed to Oswego, where there were 
several large flouring mills and large stores of wheat. 
They arrived about daylight, and as early as practicable 
Tomlinson got in communication with all the mills and 
bought all their flour and wheat. He could do this rap¬ 
idly and without exciting suspicion because he was in 
the habit of dealing with them in this way and more 
frequently appeared very early in the morning for such 
purchases than at any other time. After he had finished 
his purchases and practically secured all the flour in 
Oswego and contracted for all they could make for 
several months ahead, on his way back to the hotel he 
met several other men from Syracuse who had gone to 
Oswego on the same errand. When he saw them coming 
he set up a whistle in his boyish way, and said: “Boys, 
you’re too late! I’ve got all there is!” 

The handling and shipping of this vast amount of 
food product to Ireland absorbed Mr. Tomlinson’s en¬ 
tire time and took him from the store completely, and 
the final result was the winding up of his interest in the 
store and my combination with Dennis McCarthy. The 
stock in our store was all turned over to me by Mr. 

[ 30 ] 


A YANKEE TRADER 

Tomlinsonand I gave up my outside business interests to 
him. This left me in full possession. Dennis McCarthy 
had opened a dry goods store next to us, with only a par¬ 
tition wall between. I had the larger store, it being fifty 
feet deeper than McCarthy’s. He needed more room; 
I needed a partner. We agreed to take our stocks at in¬ 
voice prices, at the inventory, and put them together, 
either paying to the other the difference in value, and 
cut a wide archway between the stores, throwing them 
into one. We then entered into equal partnership under 
the name of McCarthy and Ayer [March l, 1847]. 

“ Our sales, this, the third year of our present firm, end¬ 
ing March first [1850] will amount to about $85,000.00 
you will say we ought to make something on this 
amount of business, so we ought & hope, but ambitious 
still to make, instead of withdrawing from our business 
we invest faster than we can make. . . 

McCarthy had two brothers and a brother-in-law by 
the name of Titus in the store, all clerks. Titus had 
once been a merchant on his own account and he and 
the two brothers naturally felt that they should have 
the place that I had taken as partner with Dennis; and 
an increased jealousy as time went on showed itself to 
McCarthy. While they did disagreeable things to me 
and showed this jealousy to me, I don’t remember that I 
ever referred to it to McCarthy. He discovered it, how¬ 
ever, and told them that if they interfered with me in 
any way, or made themselves disagreeable, they would 
have to leave. They all left shortly after. After about 
two years of this partnership, Mr. Tomlinson was run 
over and killed by a railroad train at Little Falls. It 
then developed that some debts created by him in the 
name of J. H. Tomlinson & Co. and of which he agreed 

* Frederick Ayer to his aunt, Hope Ayer, dated Syracuse, January 6, 1850. 

[ 31 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


to take care when I went in with McCarthy, had not 
been paid; I was sued for these debts and, fearing the 
results, wrote to my brother, who came on to Syracuse 
and purchased of me my interest in McCarthy & Ayer, 
and the firm name was changed to D. McCarthy & Co. 
My attorneys in these suits were B. Davis Noxon and 
Parrish Johnson (grandfather of the present [1913] Gov¬ 
ernor Johnson, of California), bookkeeper of Tomlin¬ 
son & Co. and a very good attorney, who knew the situa¬ 
tion. My attorneys were most efficient and won my suits, 
which relieved me from the responsibility of these debts. 
Mr. Noxon was an old man and very clever. One day 
at the Court House he saw that I was anxious. Tapping 
me on the shoulder he said: “Young man, don’t give 
yourself any anxiety about these cases. Mr. Johnson and 
I will take care of them.” And they did. The cases were 
decided in my favor, soon after which the interest in the 
firm of McCarthy & Ayer, which I had transferred to 
my brother, was re-transferred to me, and the business 
continued as above until March, 1855, when I sold my 
interest to McCarthy and formed a partnership with my 
brother James in Lowell in the medicine business, he 
holding two-thirds in the business and I one-third. 

During the eight years that McCarthy and I were 
in business together, we never had any misunderstand¬ 
ings or a word of difference. We discussed freely the 
business policy of the firm and any important points 
that came up from time to time. I felt a very warm per¬ 
sonal friendship for McCarthy and I have every reason 
to believe that he did for me. A year or so after leav¬ 
ing Syracuse, I made a loan of $40,000 to McCarthy 
for the purpose of building a wholesale store, which he 
ran in connection with the retail business for several 
years. 


[ 32 ] 


A YANKEE TRADER 


McCarthy was an Original Democrat. When the War 
broke out in 1861, he believed that the Democratic party 
had taken a wrong position, and turned Republican. 
He was afterwards elected to Congress by the Republi¬ 
cans of his district, where he served two terms, and later 
to the New York Senate, of which he was President. 

He was notan admirer of Roscoe Conkling and Platt, 
then senators from New York to the United States Sen¬ 
ate, and who thought they owned the state politically. 
In some controversy with the Administration, to show 
their political power in New York, these two senators 
resigned their seats, believing that they could be sent im¬ 
mediately back from Albany. To get their names before 
the New York Senate they would have to be recom¬ 
mended by a certain committee of which McCarthy, 
by virtue of his Presidency, was chairman. Messrs. 
Conkling and Platt exerted every influence in their power 
to get McCarthy to call that committee together to pre¬ 
sent their names for re-election, but McCarthy, who 
believed neither in Conkling nor his methods, was not 
to be moved. He never summoned the committee and 
Mr. Conkling never went back to the Senate, but in¬ 
stead took up the practice of law in New York City. 
Later on, Mr. Platt became a political boss in the state, 
and through that influence was sent back to the Senate.* 

My three great friends in Syracuse to whose houses 
I went most were Mrs. General Leavenworth, the wife 
of an attorney,— a tall, queenly, beautiful woman; Mrs. 
Judge James L. Lawrence, tall, dark,stately—like Mrs. 
Goodrich;-)* Mrs. T.T. Davis, a small lively woman with 


* The incident referred to was the appointment by President Garfield of their 
political opponent, Judge William H. Robertson, as Collector of the Port of 
New York. Their resignation took place May 16, 18 8 i. 


+ Mrs. Alice Paris Goodrich, of Boston. 

[ 33 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


snapping black eyes, who was very clever and who wrote 
a life of Sir Philip Sidney. Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Leaven¬ 
worth and another friend, Mrs. Granger, used to have a 
great many young ladies visiting them, in whom I was 
always expected to become interested. 


FREDERICK AYER TO HIS AUNT, HOPE AYER 

Syracuse Sunday Eve. 

Jany 6th 18yo. 

Miss. Hope Ayer 

My Dear Aunt. I am thankful for the privilege it 
becomes mine once more to write you; although I can¬ 
not presume to send you anything worthy wrapping 
under the sanctity of a seal, still you will allow me to 
treasure the many pleasant recolections of times long gone 
by, it is a satisfaction to recall since the reality is denied 
me. 

I date back to the time when I was cow boy under 
your charge , the pleasentest hours of my life; although often 
told I never could believe, that youth was the time for 
enjoyment; but I find that manhood brings with it cares 
and responsibilities which detract from the enjoyment 
our freedom once allotted us. 

You may think strange to hear me speak thus, as it 
seems but a few days since I was at your side and nur¬ 
tured by your hand, but I am not insensible that my 
twenty eighth year finds my head half silverd o’er; if 
not with age, with hard work & hard thinking—and I 
flatter myselfe that it has not all been done to no pur¬ 
pose. I have to show for it my situation in life and 
standing in society, of which Uncle Dwight [Cook] can 
tell you much better than I can write. . . . 

Should you feel any interest in the young lady that 

[ 34 ] 



/ 


















































































































































A YANKEE TRADER 


is to be my wife, (when I find her) I shall be most happy 
to show her to you, but I will assure you that she will 
be nothing short of a pattern lady and a moddel wife — 
shall we settle on the Brown farm? . . . 

Remember me with Respect & Kindness to Grand¬ 
father Ayer, may God aid thy kind heart & willing hand 
to bestow every peace & comfort the world can give on 
his old age. 

Remember me to Uncle George and to Grandfather 
Cooks family. 

Sincerely wishing you every happiness & joy the 
world affords without a sorrow I am Dear Aunt with 
sentiments of Esteem & friendship your nephew, 

Fred^ Ayer 


/ 


[ 35 ] 


IV 

J. C. AYER & COMPANY 

M { brother’s career up to the time I went to 
Lowell had been as follows: — At the Cook 
farm, James had a valuable experience in 
farm and mill work, a jolly time with the 
boys, and went to the Kimball District School in win¬ 
ter.* Uncle James Cook, visiting his father, became ac¬ 
quainted with my brother, took a fancy to him, took 
him with him to Lowell, and sent him to Westford 
Academy to complete his education. After his gradua¬ 
tion, James took a clerkship with Mr. Robbins in his 
drug store [in the summer of 1838], and boarded with 
Uncle James; and, as Uncle James had no children, I 
have always understood that my brother supplied that 
place to some extent, making himself both useful and 
entertaining, for both of which qualities he had a rare 
gift. During his leisure hours in the store he applied him¬ 
self to the study of the compounding of medicine, and 
qualified as a physician. Mr. Robbins’s place, being a 
leading drug store in the city, was much visited by the 
physicians, which gave James a rare opportunity of be¬ 
coming familiar with them, and many of them became 
interested in him to the extent of taking him with them 
if they had unusual cases or operations. 

After about two years with Mr. Robbins James pur¬ 
chased the store [in April, 1841] and ran it in his own 
name.*)* The business suggested to James the need of 

* In Reminiscences of James C. Ayer no such bright picture of his youth is 
painted, and much stress is laid on his long hours of work in the mill. This 
shows how hard Frederick Ayer must have worked, for he alw'ays referred 
to his brother’s childhood as happy. 

+ The purchase price was $2486.61, which he borrowed from his uncle, 
James Cook. This was just before his twenty-third birthday. 

[ 36 ] 











J. C. AYER & COMPANY 

some standard remedy which physicians could order for 
coughs and colds. This suggestion was warmly approved 
by the doctors; and the result, Cherry Pectoral, was gen¬ 
erally ordered by them for those complaints. Without 
other notice its fame grew until the demand induced 
him to put it up for the general market. From this time 
the business of supplying the market absorbed him so 
much that he took Carlos A. Cook (son of Uncle Nathan) 
as a partner to run the drug store. The business continued 
to grow until, in the spring of 1855, James told me it 
was too confining, and he must have a partner; that he 
would rather have me than anyone else, although he had 
two experienced and excellent men in the office who 
would be acceptable. After looking into the business, 
I returned to Syracuse and told Mr. McCarthy of my 
brother’s proposition. It so happened that James Sedg¬ 
wick, a young man whom we had brought up in the 
store, had recently married one of McCarthy’s daugh¬ 
ters, so McCarthy was not averse to buying my interest 
for him.* Consequently the trade was easily made, and 
a partnership was formed between my brother and my¬ 
self on April 1st, 18554 

I lived in my brother’s family J after coming to Low- 

* Frederick Ayer received a cash payment of $33,000 for his interest in the 
firm. When he asked McCarthy about an allowance for good will, the latter 
replied: “Help yourself; take all you want!” 

+ The original articles of copartnership are dated June 1, 1855. The total 
value of the assets of the firm is stated to be $162,000. Frederick Ayer had 
a one-third interest. 

J James Cook Ayer had married Josephine Mellen Southwick, November 14, 
1850, and had later bought as a residence the “Stone Tavern” on Paw¬ 
tucket Street, built by Captain Phineas Whiting in 1825. His children 
were: Frederick Fanning, Henry Southwick, and Lesley Josephine. “ Dr. 
Ayer’s family are very agreeable and kind. Mrs. Ayer is a jolly, easy woman 
about thirty, very girlish in her w r ays and quite w r itty. They live in an im¬ 
mense stone house. It is furnished nicely and handsomely, but there is very 
little display. . . . We dine there almost every Sunday.” Cornelia Wheaton 
Ayer to her aunt, Julia C. Birdseye, January 28, 1859. 

[ 37 ] 


REMINISCENCES 

ell until I was married, in December, 1858. After that, 
our families were located near together and their rela¬ 
tions were always very cordial. 

In this new business I had much to learn. In the 
winters of ’55 and ’56 I did the work of a traveller in 
the Gulf States, by public conveyance where there was 
such, and on horseback to reach all other trading points. 
During the summer of 1855 there had been an unusual 
epidemic of yellow fever through these states, and in sev¬ 
eral of the interior places I found that our agents had 
been victims of this epidemic. In one place the agent’s 
store and residence were pointed out as where he was sick 
and died, and it had not since been opened. . . . Agents 
in other localities had suffered in the same manner, but 
their places had not been so neglected as the one above. 

Cherry Pectoral had been introduced throughout the 
Gulf States before, but on this trip I distributed the 
formula, with specimens, to the physicians in person— 
both of which, as well as myself, were most cordially 
received. The general attitude of the physicians was 
that it was a remedy much needed, and that they were 
glad to know its composition. This visiting the agents 
and advertising constituted the business of the trav¬ 
eller—all of which I did in northern Texas, southern 
Louisiana, southern Alabama and southern Georgia. It 
was a most interesting winter’s experience. One night 
I stopped with a planter in Louisiana. At supper he 
said he was going deer-stalking and invited me to go 
along. The party consisted of the farmer with his rifle, 
walking ahead of a negro carrying a pine-knot torch 
over his head. I walked behind the negro. The deer were 
supposed to glare at the light as it approached, and the 
planter to see their eyes at some distance ahead. We had 
walked about a couple of hours through the woods with- 

[ 38 ] 







61 


rvcxAJje) 


,tL) A.an|J a5xJ>XXC,VX3lLAj imtlx) 


MM) AM) 


L) 





|ames C %$tx. 





' 


















, 



























J. C. AYER & COMPANY 

out starting any game when finally the word “Halt!” 
came from the head, and the crack of the rifle imme¬ 
diately followed. Investigation showed that the planter 
had shot one of his own mules, and we stalked home 
without starting any more game. 

When I went into business with my brother the only 
medicine he had perfected and put upon the market 
was Cherry Pectoral, but that had acquired a large sale 
and was in itself a profitable business. My brother was 
at this time at work on a pill for general use, which was 
soon after perfected and put on the market as Ayer’s 
Cathartic Pills. Subsequently, through much labor, in¬ 
vestigation, experimenting and study, the Sarsaparilla 
and Hair Vigor were also put on the market, and all of 
the medicines soon became very popular. A successful 
and threatening competitor to the Hair Vigor was Hall’s 
Hair Renewer, put up in Nashua, New Hampshire. My 
brother rather reluctantly consented to buy the exclu¬ 
sive rights to make and sell that preparation under the 
name of R. P. Hall & Co., which it was then using. 
I approached Mr. Charles A. Gillis, the then owner of 
the preparation, and finally closed a deal with him [No¬ 
vember 7, 1870] for $ 100,000, which included the build¬ 
ing in which it was made. The purchase proved a profit¬ 
able one. Mr. Gillis had made quite a fortune and, feel¬ 
ing that he had outgrown the medicine business, had 
moved to New York. Wall Street soon had his entire 
fortune. 

Returning to Lowell in the spring of 1857, ^ resumed 
work in the office and manufactory of the J. C. Ayer 
Company.* This was in the building owned by the J. C. 
Ayer Company on Jackson Street which, with the ad- 

*The concern was J. C. Ayer & Company, a partnership, until its incor¬ 
poration on October 16, 1877, with a capital of $200,000. 

[ 39 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


dition of Pills, Sarsaparilla, and Hair Vigor, and the 
increase of business, became too small; so we bought a 
lot on Market Street and built the building now occu¬ 
pied by the J. C. Ayer Company. As the business grew 
and still more room was required, we bought the old 
Green schoolhouse on Middle Street which was directly 
back of the Market Street building. This was used for 
offices and storage and connected with the Market Street 
building by bridges. It was here that the Ague Cure was 
compounded and put on the market. This was when 
quinine was very high, and being an effective remedy for 
fever and ague and malaria, took the place of quinine 
and had a very large sale; latterly quinine has become 
very cheap and has largely taken the place of the Ague 
Cure. 

My brother was always intensely interested in his 
business and very jealous of any unfavorable allusion 
to it. He had a right to this feeling, because the medi¬ 
cines were really scientifically organized and prepared 
and had the approval of the best physicians of the coun¬ 
try, being not at all like the ordinary patent medicines 
(because not patented, and with the formulas distrib¬ 
uted to the druggists and physicians), and had no right 
to be classified with them.* Therefore when he heard 
them mentioned in that connection he would always 
defend them with vigor. The success and popularity 
of the medicines excited more or less jealousy, which 
sometimes appeared in unpleasant ways. For instance: 
a president of one of the banks in Lowell was a notary 
public, and advertising bills frequently came through 
his bank for collection, and being a notary, the presi- 

* Frederick Ayer worshipped his brother’s memory and thoroughly believed 
in his medicines. Thus at the World’s Fair at Chicago in 1893 he caught a 
bad cold, and could not be happy until he had run out to a drug store and 
bought a bottle of “Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral.” 

[ 40 ] 


J. C. AYER & COMPANY 

dent generally made it convenient to call at the J. C. 
Ayer Company office with such bills. At a fair, the Doc¬ 
tor was asked to make as good a show as he could of 
his preparations, and consequently built a large pyramid 
of his medicines in various stages of packing, etc., in 
a prominent place in the room, putting on top a large 
druggist’s show bottle filled with water colored to imi¬ 
tate Cherry Pectoral. The chairman of the committee 
of inspection and awards of this fair happened to be the 
president above referred to. The Doctor explained to 
the committee the arrangement of his pyramid, stating 
that the show bottle on top was not filled with Cherry 
Pectoral, but with water colored like it, because if it 
should happen to break it would not damage the things 
under it as Cherry Pectoral would. To this the presi¬ 
dent took exception, called it a fraud for a fling at the 
Doctor, and would not award the display any honorable 
mention. The Doctor was very indignant and left word 
with the man at his office door (myself) that if the said 
president ever showed his face there again to kick him 
out without comment. 

On another occasion, St. Anne’s Church, in which this 
said president was a deacon, was trying to raise by sub¬ 
scription money for a chime of bells. The money came 
slowly and the Doctor was appealed to for a subscrip¬ 
tion, which he declined, but said that he would pre¬ 
sent one of the bells, putting on an inscription to suit 
himself. The bell was ordered, and when it came with 
the inscription, “This Bell presented by Dr. James C. 
Ayer of Lowell, Massachusetts, Proprietor and Manu¬ 
facturer of Ayer’s Cathartic Pills, by approval of the 
Wardens,” well, you can imagine the fury of the Bank- 
President-Warden! But money was scarce, and the bell 
took its place in the belfry with its companions. It hangs 

[ 4i ] 


REMINISCENCES 


in St. Anne’s Church to-day, part of the second oldest set 
of chimes in New England. Needless to say that every 
effort possible was made to induce the Doctor to change 
or remove the inscription, without result.* He had got 
his revenge. 

Any unfavorable allusion to his medicines, as to his 
business, he took as a personal insult, and the party never 
escaped without retribution. Do not infer from the above 
that he was a quarrelsome man. On the contrary, he was 
one of the most kind-hearted, considerate, genial men 
you would be likely to meet. He never stepped on 
anyone’s toes intentionally, and nobody must step on 
his. He was devoted to his family, and playful with his 
children. 


* “Written from memory.” Beatrice Ayer Patton. As a matter of fact, the 
bell was not cast by Dr. Ayer but by the committee, and no such inscrip¬ 
tion ever was put on it. Dr. Ayer determined to “stir up” the committee 
by making such a proposal, and did so; but when they reluctantly acceded 
to his proposition, he promptly wrote, under date of September 30, 1857, 
enclosing a cheque and saying, “We will accept the bell as you have already 
cast it.” 

[ 42 ] 


































































































































MARRIAGE AND A HOME 


O N December 15, 1858, I was married to Cor- 
neliaWheaton [bom June 20,1835], daughter 
of Charles Augustus Wheaton, of Syracuse.* 
It was a noon wedding and we started at once 
for Lowell, stopping at the Dele van House at Albany. 
Early in the morning of the 17th a telegram was re¬ 
ceived saying that Mrs. Wheaton, my wife’s mother, had 
died during the night from heart failure. We immedi¬ 
ately returned to Syracuse. This left Mr. Wheaton with 
several young children, one of whom—Mabel [born 
April 23, 1855] — had been my wife’s especial care. We 
took her with us to Lowell, where she remained in her sis¬ 
ter’s care until the autumn of that year, when her father 
paid us a visit and took her home with him to Syracuse.J 
Mr. Wheaton was a hardware merchant and a gener¬ 
ally enterprising business man. He arranged a contract 
with the states of Georgia and South Carolina to build 

*Born in Amenia, Dutchess County, N. Y., July i, 1809. He was sixth in 
descent from Robert Wheaton, of Swansea, Wales, who emigrated to Salem, 
married Alice Bowen, and died in Rehoboth in 1696. Robert’s great-grand¬ 
son, Joseph Wheaton, moved from Seekonk, Mass., to New Milford, Conn., 
in 1744, and his grandson, Augustus (father of Charles Augustus), moved 
first to Amenia, and then to Pompey, N. Y., in March, 1810. 

Augustus Wheaton was a first cousin of Rev. Nathaniel S. Wheaton, a 
graduate of Yale, who founded Trinity College, Hartford, and wrote an 
interesting volume of Letters from England. Hon. Laban Wheaton, founder 
of Wheaton College, and Hon. Henry Wheaton, United States Minister to 
Prussia and an accepted authority on International Law, were of the same 
general family. 

Corporal Homer J. Wheaton of the 101st Infantry, who immortalized 
himself in the Great War, was a great-grandson of Charles Augustus 
Wheaton’s brother, Jarvis. 

f “It is n’t many young men that would take a little stranger right into 
his affections, as he has Mabel, and I think it shows pretty plainly that he 
carries a large heart with him.” Diary of Frederick Ayer’s sister-in-law, 
Ellen Louisa Wheaton, December 29, 1858. 

[ 43 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


a railroad extending through the two states, on which 
he spent about two years time and in which he invested 
his own fortune. When the War broke out, of course 
the railroad went to smash like all other unfinished en¬ 
terprises in the South, and Mr. Wheaton’s fortune went 
with it. After the War there was not vitality enough left 
in the two states to revive and finish it, although Mr. 
Wheaton made a great effort to do so.* Mr. Wheaton 
was celebrated as an abolitionist and his house was a 
way-station for slaves escaping to Canada; his base¬ 
ment was frequently full of them over night. A census 
taker calling at his house one day, not finding him in 
inquired of the ex-slave, old George, at the door, of his 
whereabouts and his business. The answer was, “ Law, 
Massa, I don’t know where he A, but he’s President of 
the Underground Railroad!” 

The Wheatons did not care anything for society, hav- 


* The original contract was made in 1853, and Charles A. Wheaton became 
a party to it in 1854. The project was to connect Anderson, S. C., with 
Knoxville, Tenn., by a railway called the Blue Ridge Railroad. As a basis 
of the enterprise, the State of South Carolina guaranteed the bonds of the 
road to the extent of several million dollars. In 1856 disputes arose and 
litigation was begun in the United States Circuit Court for the Northern 
District of Georgia (No. 286, September Term), and carried on until 1867, 
when the suit was dismissed in the United States Supreme Court by stipu¬ 
lation of counsel. The reason for this was the repudiation of the bonds by 
the South Carolina Legislature, which wrecked the road. The case is par¬ 
tially reported, as Anson Bangs & Co. <vs. Blue Ridge Railroad et al., in 23 
Howard (U. S.) 1. The original claim was for upwards of $2,000,000, and 
the complainants’ counsel were Hon. Thomas R. R. Cobb and Senator Tombs. 

The Blue Ridge Railroad is now in operation between Belton and Wal- 
halla, S. C., a distance of 44.2 miles, and is, for practical purposes, a subsidiary 
of the Southern Railway Company. Three-fourths of the rough grading to 
Knoxville had been completed prior to the Civil War. All idea of resuming 
the work has been definitely abandoned. 

In Mr. Wheaton’s letters to his family there are frequent references to 
“the tunnel.” This is on the southwestern side of Stump House Mountain, 
Oconee County, S. C., and its location is clearly shown on the United States 
Topographical Survey map. The tunnel was to be a mile and a quarter long, 
and four-fifths of it was dug. 


[ 44 ] 


MARRIAGE AND A HOME 

ing always too much business on hand at home. Mrs. 
Wheaton used to trade at the store and sometimes 
brought Cornelia with her. Mrs. McCarthy, discover¬ 
ing that I was interested in Cornelia, used to invite us to 
her house together. Later she went South to teach, and 
I lost her.* Shortly after her return, when I was living in 
Lowell, Mrs. McCarthy invited me to visit her, and when 
I returned I found Cornelia there. After this we made a 
trip with Mrs. McCarthy to Niagara Falls, arranged by 
her so as to give me a chance to see more of Cornelia. 

[“ The Doctor will accommodate himself to my wishes 
about going away, and I have hardly a doubt but I shall 
be with you next week. Then we will take a drive or two 
’round through the refreshing shades of the vale where 
the whip-poor-will sings. Will we not?”|] 

[“Niagara is accomplished much to the satisfaction 
of all concerned, I trust. ... I must say my impressions 
of Monsieur Ayer are much more favorable, and that 
he improves vastly upon a further acquaintance.” J] 
This was the only trip I ever made with her before 
our marriage, except a buggy drive of fourteen miles 
to Pompey Hill to spend the day with Judge Victory 
Birdseye, Cornelia’s grandfather, § and his family. Aunt 

* She left Syracuse on February 29, 1856, to teach the children of Mr. John 
C. Davis, a planter, at “Cluella,” Shocco Springs, Warren County, N. C. 
She returned to Syracuse, June 29, 1857. 

t Frederick Ayer to Cornelia Wheaton, August 5,1858. The trip began on 
August 24. 

| Cornelia Wheaton to her aunt, Julia C. Birdseye, August 30, 1858. 

§ Fifth in descent from Deacon John Birdseye, of Stratford, Conn., who 
died in 1690. His great-grandson, Rev. Nathan Birdseye (Victory’s grand¬ 
father), was graduated from Yale College, and after a pastorate at West Haven 
removed to Oronoque (in Stratford) in 1759, and died there in 1818, aged 
one hundred three years, five months, nine days. After he was a hundred 
years old he rode on horseback to the Stratford church, a distance of five 
miles, with two of his sons (both over seventy) walking on either side of 
him, and conducted the services. Being almost blind he repeated the chapter 

[ 45 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


Hepsey Beebe, Mrs. Judge Birdseye’s sister (Mrs. 
Wheaton’s aunt), was the one who, after she had refused 
one of her suitors, walked to the gate with him. As he 
mounted his horse, he cried: “Damn you, Hepsey, I love 
you, anyhow! ” and rode away. 


FREDERICK AYER TO CORNELIA WHEATON 

October 1858 

My own dearest Corneille, Your note of Monday 
Evening is just at hand and you will think it strange 
when I tell you how much satisfaction it affords me. 
But when you consider that I am living on the hope of 
spending my life with you, you will appreciate the value 
to me of any indication I can get of your regard for or 
confidence in me. To deserve both is the ambition of 
my life — and you have granted a little to my ambi¬ 
tion. . . . Do not undertake more preparations than are 
necessary for your own personal comfort: it will be so 
easy to make any additional you may desire here. These 
sewing machines canter by the mile over fine stitches 
— and I am quite sure I should like to turn them for 
you. . . . Yours fondly, Fred. 

In Lowell we boarded with my uncle and aunt, Mr. 

and psalms from memory, and preached the sermon much to the pleasure 
and edification of the congregation. A house he may have lived in, and where 
his daughter, Hannah, was married in 1765, still stands on the original 
Birdseye land, and the place is known as Prayer Spring Farm. 

Victory Birdseye was born in Cornwall, Conn., in 1782. He was gradu¬ 
ated from Williams College in 1804, studied law at Lansingburg, N. Y., 
with his uncle, Gideon Tomlinson, and settled at Pompey, N. Y., in June, 
1807. He married Electa Beebe in 18x3, served two terms in Congress (the 
Fourteenth and Twenty-seventh), and died at Pompey, in 1853. A fine oil 
portrait of him, by Thayer, hangs in the Court House at Syracuse (a copy 
being owned by Francis W. Kittredge, of Boston), and oil portraits of his 
maternal grandparents, Beach and Charity Shelton Tomlinson, are owned 
by Louise Ayer Gordon. 

[ 46 ] 






































' 


























































































MARRIAGE AND A HOME 


and Mrs. James Cook, in a house which stood at the 
north end of the Lowell and Andover Railroad Station. 

[“ I have delightful rooms. You know we are boarding 
with the family of Fred’s uncle, the Mayor of the city. 
Said family consists of‘His Honor, the Mayor,’ Mr. 
Cook, his wife and her sister, Miss Mary Ann Ayer, a 
maiden of about fifty years of age. There are two servant 
girls, and Fred, Mabel and myself beside.... I have two 
rooms and the privileges of bath room . . . etc. . . . My 
parlor is about the size and length of Mrs. McCarthy’s. 
It is beautifully furnished, though I have not everything 
for it yet. I have handsome lace curtains, handsome car¬ 
pet, furniture is carved black walnut and green plush,— 
sofas, easy chairs, ottomans, etc., a splendid piano, which 
I selected at the manufactory of Chickering in Boston, 
pictures, grate, and I am to have a superb mantel mirror. 
. . . Mrs. Cook is a very stiff, cold, precise woman, and 
her sister a sort of echo. ... Mr. Cook is a very social, 
kind man. ... I have just returned from a ride with 
Fred. .. . There are charming drives around Lowell.... 
I don’t see a great deal of my husband. He leaves for the 
office right after breakfast, comes home generally a few 
minutes before dinner, and stays about half an hour after; 
comes home just in time for tea, and spends all his evenings 
with me , which I enjoy very much, I can assure you.”]* 

During the summer I purchased the house and lot on 
the corner of Pawtucket and School Streets, enlarged 
and fixed up the house, and moved into it in October, 
1859. We lived in this house until the new one was 
built on the same lot, into which we moved in the sum¬ 
mer of 1877, w ^ en Louise was one year old. All four 
children were born in the old house [Ellen Wheaton, 
November 28, 1859; James Cook, October 13, 1862; 


* Cornelia Wheaton Ayer to her aunt, Julia C. Birdseye, January 28, 1859. 


[ 47 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


Charles Fanning, November 22, 1865; and Louise 
Raynor, January 17, 1876]. We had been in the new 
house about two years when Cornelia died [January 9, 
1878]. Her sister, Florence Wheaton, was living with 
us at the time, and continued there afterwards in charge 
of the house. Cornelia, Mother and my brother James 
all died within three years [1878-80]. 

In February, 1863, I went to California and did the 
business of traveller in that state and Nevada for the J. C. 
Ayer Company. I went by steamer to Colon, crossed the 
Isthmus and thence by steamer to San Francisco. 

Reddington & Company were at that time our agents 
in San Francisco and had spread our medicines to some 
extent through their customers. I travelled the country 
thoroughly, by such conveyances as there were from 
place to place, and to remote places on horseback, mak¬ 
ing agents at every trading point and advertising the 
preparations, also visiting the physicians and leaving 
with them specimens and formulas,— all of which was 
most acceptable, affording them as it did reliable prepa¬ 
rations which they could prescribe with confidence 
(knowing their composition), and a very large sale fol¬ 
lowed. In that then frontier country reliable druggists 
were not always at hand and physicians were puzzled 
to get medicines on which they could depend for their 
patients. Hence the large sale that followed. 

While in the west, I met my brother-in-law, Dr. A. R. 
Morgan,* who had gone there for his health six months 
before. When I was about to return, he was anxious to 
return with me, and I can never forget the painful ex¬ 
pression that came into his face when he finally said that 
his health would not justify his return. He returned six 
months later having meanwhile visited Australia. 

* Married Ellen Louisa Wheaton, October 4, i860. 

[ 48 ] 










MARRIAGE AND A HOME 


It was my intention to go by stage across the coun¬ 
try. I went to the stage office in Sacramento to engage 
a passage. The agent invited me to go to the carriage 
house with him and, pointing to a coach that was lit¬ 
erally riddled and cut to pieces with shots, said: “That 
was the last coach over and the Indians are on a ram¬ 
page. If you want to take the chances I will book you; 
but if you have any responsibilities at home I advise 
you not to go this way/’ 

I took the steamer from San Francisco to Nicaragua, 
where I spent two days visiting as much of the country 
adjacent to the port as I could, then the steamer across 
the lake to the San Juan River, where I, with the other 
passengers, embarked on two river boats for the Carib¬ 
bean Sea. It was intended to make the passage down the 
river in one day, but the steamer was late and we tied 
up to the bank for the night. The boats were day boats 
only and were built entirely open on the sides above the 
deck, with awnings, and there were no accommodations 
for sleeping. Some of the passengers had grass ham¬ 
mocks, a Nicaragua product, which they strung up above 
the deck and made into quite comfortable accommo¬ 
dations for the night. The lights on all the boats called 
a great variety of animals, which filled the trees and 
called from their various locations in a variety of voices, 
from the chatter of the monkeys to the screeching of 
the owls and the growling of what might be panthers 
and a great variety of unnameable creatures. Even if 
one had not been interested in their music, it was too 
oppressive to admit of sleep. In the morning we made 
our way to the Caribbean Sea, took our steamer, and 
rolled away to New York. I had been gone six months 
to a day. 

In the spring of 1864, while in Washington, I rode 

[ 49 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


out on horseback to General Slocum’s headquarters in 
Virginia. After a chat with the General, and while sit¬ 
ting on my horse, ready to leave, he said: “ By the way, I 
have a little negro here that came into our lines from 
the rebels a few days ago. I’m going to move to-day 
and would like to have you take him North with you. 
We call him ‘Jeff’ and his story is that he belonged to 
General Williams, that the General called him in the 
morning and gave him a few pennies to get some eggs 
for his breakfast. After wandering about a week or more 
he came within our lines, and to the questions of where 
he came from, etc., he said: ‘I’s General Willums nig¬ 
ger. He gave me some pennies and sent me out to get 
some eggs for his breakfast.’ Then, shoving his hand 
down into his trousers pocket, he pulled out a few pen¬ 
nies, and said: ‘ Here’s de pennies, and I ’specks General 
Willums is waiting for his eggs!”’ 

I said to General Slocum, “Call him out! Let me see 
him!” He called to Jeff, who walked very deliberately 
out of the tent—a little negro less than three feet tall, 
very black, hair curling tight to his head, with a mil¬ 
itary cap under his arm, indicating his rank — walked 
slowly up to the General, never noticing me until the 
General said: “Jeff, I’m going to move to-day and I 
can’t take you with me. Here’s a gentleman who ’ll take 
you North with him.” At this he turned, rolled his eyes 
up at me and turned on his heel, saying: “No, sah! I go 
wid no such lookin’ gen’l’man as dat!” and deliberately 
walked back to the tent as though in command of the 
army. 

With Mr. William Kittredge, father of Francis W. 
Kittredge, and three other gentlemen, we called on Pres¬ 
ident Lincoln at the White House. He had just finished 
his morning work, and being very warm weather, he was 

[ So ] 


MARRIAGE AND A HOME 

in his shirt sleeves, with his vest unbuttoned, without a 
cravat, and his shirt collar so wet with perspiration that 
it lay flat on his shoulders. Before arriving the party re¬ 
quested me to act as spokesman and introduce them. 
Mr. Lincoln received us standing, and looked terribly 
tired, bored, and lifeless, until, after introducing myself 
and friends, I said: “Mr. President, we have called to 
pay our respects to our President; but none of us has 
a favor to ask—not even a country post office.” At this 
he woke up, and rushed at me with both hands, took 
both mine and shaking them vigorously, said: “Gen¬ 
tlemen, I am glad to see you. You are the first men I 
have seen since I have been here that did n’t want some¬ 
thing!” After a brief conversation we bade the Presi¬ 
dent good-bye, with another vigorous hand-shaking, and 
never saw him again. 


[ SI ] 


VI 

AN AMERICAN CAPITALIST 


TREMONT & SUFFOLK MILLS 



facturing Company were two corporations situ¬ 
ated on opposite sides of Suffolk Street, Lowell. 
I think it was in the panic of 1857 that both 


HE Tremont Mills and the Suffolk Manu- 


failed. After they had been idle for two or three years, 
my brother and I bought nearly half of the outstanding 
capital stock of each corporation, and, with the consent 
of the other stockholders, reorganized the two into one 
corporation — the Tremont and Suffolk Mills [August 
19, 1871]. 

Much of the old machinery was sold off and new and 
improved took its place. This machinery was organized 
to make plain cotton sheeting, drillings, cotton flannels 
and blankets, and was first for a short time under the 
management of Cousin Albert Cook (son of Nathan) 
as agent, since when the mills have had several men 
in that capacity. The company went through the ordi¬ 
nary trials in bringing out its goods and marketing them 
successfully, but promised success from the beginning. 
The old mill buildings have been much improved and 
several new mills have been built on each side of the 
street, steam power being added to drive them. They are 
now as prosperous as any mills in New England. 

One of the early treasurers of the Tremont and Suf¬ 
folk Mills was John C. Birdseye, of Pompey Hill, Onon¬ 
daga County, New York, uncle of my first wife. Mr. 
Birdseye went to California immediately after the dis¬ 
covery of gold there in 1849. about 1870 he came 
home and came to Lowell to visit my family. My brother 


[ 52 ] 


AN AMERICAN CAPITALIST 


took a great fancy to him and persuaded him to remain 
as treasurer of the Tremont and Suffolk Mills, which 
he did, filling the position with marked ability and suc¬ 
cess until he was obliged to retire on account of his 
health. During this time — seven or eight years—he 
lived with my family, and was always a great favorite. 
Towards the end of this time, he was terribly sick and 
so crippled with rheumatism that I often wondered how 
he could work. . . . He returned to his home at Pompey 
Hill, went to La Porte, Indiana, and died two or three 
years later [February 27, 1894].* 


MICHIGAN LANDS 


In the early ’6o’s Judge William L. Avery, of Michi¬ 
gan, was made United States Consul to South Africa. 
On a visit home he came to the office of the J. C. Ayer 
Company and solicited the agency of our preparations 
for South Africa which we gladly gave him arid which 
he handled with success for several years. 

At one time it was difficult for him to get exchange 
to pay our account, and he sent six tierces of wine with 
instructions to sell them and apply the proceeds. I tried 
the wine dealers and druggists in Boston and New York 
with samples of the wines, but found no purchasers, 
all saying that they did not know the wines, and con¬ 
sequently could not classify and sell them under any 
known head,— in short, could not sell them at all. My 
brother put part of them in his cellar, I took the bal¬ 
ance, and our guests found them most delicious. 

On Avery’s next visit we told him of our non-success 
in selling the wine and he was very greatly surprised, 
saying that it was a lot from the Constantia Vineyards 


* “Last two sentences written down from memory.” Beatrice Ayer Patton. 


[ 53 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


which he happened to get hold of, and was not in the 
market, but generally ordered in advance by the crowned 
heads of Europe. Well, the wines evaporated from my 
cellar down to a small stock which I had bottled and 
left when I went to Europe in 1873. m y retum 
had all disappeared, although left under a Yale lock. 
It developed that William, the gardener, had found 
and disposed of it. Uncle John Birdseye said to this: 
“ What a shame that that choice wine should go down 
William’s gullet, when kerosene would have done just 
as well!” 

Mr. Avery had a brother, Peris J. Avery, in Michi¬ 
gan, who organized the Lake Superior Ship Canal Rail¬ 
way and Iron Company, capital, $4,000,000, for the pur¬ 
pose of building a canal from Houghton to Lake Su¬ 
perior, North, and to improve the river from Houghton 
to Keweenaw Bay, and to do any railroad building or 
almost any other thing. With this Avery got a grant of 
alternate sections of lands in the North Peninsula of 
Michigan, amounting to 472,000 acres, and made his 
selections for minerals as well as timber. 

To make its improvements, the company mortgaged 
its lands, and the mortgages were sold in Michigan and 
New York. Other obligations were created by the com¬ 
pany which became too heavy for its financial ability. 
He then wrote for his brother, William L., to come 
home and help him carry out his big project. William 
L. naturally came to us for assistance, but the load was 
too heavy for our undertaking and the company failed. 
We subsequently bought a quantity of the bonds at 
pretty low prices considering the amount of property 
covered by them, and held them in common with some 
of the original subscribers, mostly in New York. As the 
work for which the grant of lands was given had not 

[ 54 ] 


AN AMERICAN CAPITALIST 

been performed, the bonds were worthless until that 
should be done; accordingly the bondholders in New 
York and ourselves got together and raised funds to 
finish the canal to Lake Superior, which was done, and 
a demand made for title to said lands, which was finally 
procured after several years of suits and negotiations.* 
In this Theodore M. Davis was an active factor. He 
became receiver of a bank in New York that held a 
larger amount of bonds than any individual and also 
held nearly all the stock of the company. The stock held 
by the bank had to be sold at auction. My brother’s 
estate bought one half and I the other, which, with our 
bonds, gave us the largest influence in the company. 
Mr. Davis was made President and I was Director and 
Treasurer, and made the company’s first lease of an iron 
mine on the Menominee Range to a firm in Milwau- 
kee.J John M. Longyear, of Marquette, Michigan, then 
a young man, was made local agent, whose business it 


*“ Before the canal was completely finished, it came into my private own¬ 
ership and I also purchased the river improvement south from Houghton. 
These ship canals I ran and took the tolls on for about three years and then 
sold them to the United States Government.” Frederick Ayer. 

+ “The first lease of an iron mine was made to Mr. James J. Hagerman 
for whom Mr. Ayer had the highest regard for many years and to whom 
he contributed very substantial backing in the construction of the Colorado 
Midland Road which Mr. Hagerman undertook somewhere in the ’8o’s 
and carried through successfully against all sorts of obstacles and natural diffi¬ 
culties. Mr. Hagerman once told me that when negotiations were first begun 
with the Lake Superior Ship Canal, Railway & Iron Company for a lease 
of the lands on which was finally opened the famous Chapin Mine, the 
subject of leasing lands on royalty for iron mining was a new one and no 
system had been developed for it, so that the provisions of such leases were 
entirely experimental. However, he laid his proposition before the Company’s 
directors and they sat around the table considering it for a long time with 
nobody daring to take the initiative and sign the lease. Finally, Mr. Ayer 
reached across the table, took the lease and signed his name to it. As Mr. 
Hagerman expressed it to me, he was the only one who had courage enough 
to take the bull by the horns and break the deadlock.” Charles Fanning 
Ayer. 

[ 55 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


was to care for the property, see that the timber was 
properly estimated for sale, to sell the timber, and to 
lease the mines, — all on terms approved by the direc¬ 
tors. His salary was $ 15,000 a year and a commission 
of 2 per cent on all sales and leases. Mr. Longyear had 
been several years in Michigan as a woodsman, esti¬ 
mating timber and running out landmarks and sections. 
This gave him a splendid opportunity to observe the 
country, and, being something of a geologist, he used 
the information greatly to his benefit. On one occasion, 
when in Marquette, I asked Longyear if the mineral 
lands had all been located and purchased, to which he 
replied: “No.” I asked why he did not locate some for 
himself. He said he had no money. I said: “ If you will 
locate some lands for you and me I will furnish the 
money to pay for them, take the deeds in my name, and 
when they have paid for themselves with interest and 
expenses by the sale of timber or otherwise, I will give 
you a quit-claim deed for an undivided half interest in 
them.” Under this arrangement he located some 24,000 
acres of what he considered the most promising mineral 
lands, and they were shortly paid for by the sale of tim¬ 
ber, when I gave him the deed as agreed. Several large 
iron mines have been opened on the lands since then, 
and the investment has been a very profitable one to both 
of us; and I see no reason why it should not continue to 
be for many years. 

Ten years ago, more or less [about 1903], under the 
same arrangement, he commenced the location of lands 
for copper in Wisconsin through Mr. Burhans, who is 
to have a small interest in them, and under this arrange¬ 
ment he has located about 50,000 acres, which I have 
paid for. 


[ 56 ] 


AN AMERICAN CAPITALIST 


LOWELL & ANDOVER RAILROAD 

Prior to 1873 there was only one railroad (the Boston 
& Lowell) between Lowell and Boston. This road ran 
in connection with a road north through New Hamp¬ 
shire and General George Stark was president of both 
roads. He was very autocratic by nature, and being pres¬ 
ident of these two roads made him abnormally so, both 
in his own estimation and in the management of the 
roads. He treated the patrons of the roads as if they 
had no rights. He made it difficult to get freight trans¬ 
ported and handled. For instance, Mr. William Kit- 
tredge (father of Francis W. Kittredge) had a coal yard 
on a branch from the Lowell road, about one-eighth 
mile long, which accommodated Kittredge and several 
other patrons of the road. If a train-load of coal came 
for Kittredge and there happened to be a car unload¬ 
ing flour or some other merchandise on the branch, 
Stark’s instructions were not to wait for that car to be 
unloaded and run off, but to dump the coal by the side 
of the track anywhere. Other patrons were treated in a 
similar manner, including the J. C. Ayer Company. 

My brother remonstrated with Stark several times 
about his methods of treating his patrons. On one occa¬ 
sion, the J. C. Ayer Company had several carloads of 
high-proof alcohol shipped from Boston. It came on 
platform cars in very hot weather, and was two days on 
the way. When it came Rolfe, the local agent of the 
road, sent word to me of its arrival and asked me to go 
up and see the condition it was in. The alcohol, being 
very volatile and affected by the heat, had started every 
barrel leaking, and all the cars were dripping with al¬ 
cohol. I arranged with Mr. Rolfe to receive the alcohol 
as it was, and to keep account of it as the casks were 

[ 57 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


emptied, and send a bill for what was found to be short. 
This we agreed was the only practical way to determine 
what the leakage was. I sent the bill to Rolfe in due 
time, amounting to less than $200, but, not hearing from 
him I called his attention to it, and he said he had given 
the bill to General Stark and that I had better see him. 
Stark went to Boston every morning, and while his train 
was standing at the North Station, I stepped into the 
car and spoke to him about the alcohol bill. On being 
questioned, I told him the measurement of the alcohol 
had been made according to Mr. Rolfe’s suggestion and 
my agreement with him, and that the bill simply rep¬ 
resented the leakage. Stark swung himself back in the 
seat and said: “ I don’t think we owe you anything for 
alcohol.” I replied: “General, you know the circum¬ 
stances of the shipment on platform cars in hot weather.” 
He said: “Yes, if you think the Boston & Lowell owes 
you anything you’d better sue them.” I said: “General, 
you know we can’t afford to sue the Boston & Lowell 
Railroad for a couple of hundred dollars.” “Well,” he 
replied, “that’s your remedy,” upon which I left him. 

Returning to the office, I found my brother sitting 
at his desk, and told him of the conversation. He rose 
to his feet in great anger and said: “We have stood 
enough from that damned upstart, and I believe another 
way can be found for a road into Boston.” He asked me 
if I knew of an engineer who could find one. I told him 
of Cyrus Latham, a resident engineer, who had just re¬ 
turned from doing a similar job. He said: “Send for 
him immediately.” 

Within an hour Mr. Latham was in the office and 
was engaged to work out a route from Lowell to con¬ 
nect with the Boston & Maine Road. Latham immedi¬ 
ately started on this enterprise, and we got together at 

[ 58 ] 


AN AMERICAN CAPITALIST 


our office a few men who would be interested in the new 
road, including Mr. William Kittredge, Josiah Gates, 
General Fox (then agent of the Middlesex Mills), and 
a fund for the preliminary survey was immediately 
subscribed,— and that was the beginning of the Lowell 
& Andover Railroad. It was known that the Boston & 
Maine Railroad were anxious to get into Lowell, and 
this was their opportunity. Before starting to build the 
road a contract was made [June 3, 1873] by the Low¬ 
ell & Andover with the Boston & Maine for a 99 
year lease at 7 per cent on the cost of the road, which 
was not to exceed $750,000. At this time the Boston 
& Lowell stock was selling upward of $150 and within 
a short time after the Lowell & Andover Road was in 
operation, the Boston & Lowell stock went down to $56 
a share. 

Stark was told of this project, but made no change 
in his methods, and sneered at the idea; and even after 
the road was built said it never would be run. But it 
did run very successfully, and the stockholders of the 
Boston & Lowell Road had no further use for Stark. 

General Fox was made president of the Lowell & 
Andover Road during its organization, after which he 
resigned in my favor, and I have been its president to 
this time [1913]- The road runs from the Central Street 
Station and the Middlesex Mills (Lowell) through 
Tewksbury, connecting with the Boston & Maine Rail¬ 
road near Ballardvale. 

[In 1873 Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Ayer went abroad 
with their daughter, Ellen Wheaton Ayer, who was put 
in school at Fontainebleau, and they then travelled about 
for something over six months in Italy, Switzerland, 
France, and England.] 


[ 59 ] 


VII 

PUBLIC SERVICE: SECOND MARRIAGE 


I T always seemed to me that my father, Frederick 
Ayer, took more pride in his part in suppressing the 
small-pox epidemic in Lowell in 1871 than in any 
other achievement of his career. He recounted the 
events of this period to me a number of times, and the 
following sets them forth to the best of my recollec¬ 
tion : *— 

“A small-pox epidemic had Lowell in its grip to a de¬ 
gree approaching hysteria.*j* Deaths occurred with such 
rapidity that burials were being made at night to attract 
as little attention as possible and for fear that a panic 
would seize the city, necessitating the closing of all the 
mills and other industries. Substantially nothing was 
being done by the Board of Health to combat the epi¬ 
demic, and my father, who was then an Alderman, J was 
very outspoken in his criticism of the inertia of the Board 
of Health and City administration. This resulted in his 
election (or appointment) to the Board of Health, and 
the immediate resignation of all the other members.§ At 
this juncture he was confined to his bed in a run-down 

* Written by Frederick Ayer, Jr. 

f The epidemic began in January, 1871, and reached its climax in September 
of that year. The total number of cases for the entire epidemic was upwards 
of 570, with 192 deaths. 

J Elected to serve for one year from the first Monday in January, 1871. 

§ This is not strictly accurate. The trouble was precipitated by the Dis¬ 
trict Medical Society, which passed a resolution on July 26 recommend¬ 
ing that a special commission be created by the City Government to combat 
the disease, but by inadvertence sent it to the City Council , instead of to the 
Board of Health, as was intended. This caused a bitter controversy, and on 
September 15 an entirely new Board of Health of five members was elected, 
Frederick Ayer being designated as chairman, the other members named 
being Abel T. Atherton, Henry C. Howe, Benjamin Walker, and H. C. 
Church. 

[ 60 ] 


PUBLIC SERVICE 

condition and suffering from a severe attack of boils. He 
was not in condition to accept, and did not wish to under¬ 
take the responsibility thus placed upon him, but the 
morning found all the important mill owners sitting on 
his doorstep, begging him to take hold of the situation 
and prevent a general closing of the industries of the 
city, saying that no one else could do it. He finally ac¬ 
quiesced and, once committed, acted with vigor. The 
new Board was organized on September 18, and at once 
appointed a Board of Consulting Physicians, seven in 
number, to take charge of the medical situation. 

“The difficulties to be surmounted were calculated 
to discourage anyone, as they had the old Board of 
Health. Vaccination was regarded with great suspicion. 
There were no laws (and the urgency of the situation 
did not permit waiting for legislation) for compulsory 
vaccination,* and for the moving and isolation of pa¬ 
tients, for compelling common carriers to fumigate, or 
any such measures for the prevention of the spread of 
the epidemic. Neither was there a suitable hospital *(* nor 
a sufficient supply of nurses. 

“In handling the legal situation my father had the 
able and whole-hearted co-operation of his attorney, 
Mr. A. P. Bonney. They conferred with the Governor 
and decided that (with the situation as critical as it was, 
and with the Governor’s promise to support them in so 
far as he was able) they would take such measures as 
were called for, regardless of legal authority, and trust¬ 
ing in popular sentiment to back them up. Accordingly 
a force of volunteer special police officers was sworn in, 

* In point of fact there were such laws: on April i o a general vaccination had 
been ordered, and about 9000 persons were vaccinated. 

f A special small-pox hospital had been provided by the city, but the only 
reason it had sufficed was because the old Board of Health mistakenly con¬ 
sidered that it had no legal right to enforce removals. 

[ 61 ] 


REMINISCENCES 

and compulsory vaccination of everybody was inaugu¬ 
rated.* I believe serum and medical advice was secured 
from the Johns Hopkins Hospital at Baltimore. This 
institution also supplied a considerable number of sis¬ 
ters, who at that time occupied the position of the trained 
nurse of to-day. A wooden hospital was built outside the 
city exclusively for small-pox patients, and this struc¬ 
ture was completed within a week. All public vehicles 
were compelled to be fumigated with burning sulphur 
every night. This treatment was also applied to all the 
doctors, who were put into a box with only the face pro¬ 
truding, and thus fumigated between visits to patients. 
The Fire Department was called out every night to 
wash down the city streets. All dwellings where cases of 
small-pox occurred were immediately isolated, and a 
guard was put over them to enforce this isolation. In case 
of death or the removal of the patient, the patient’s bed¬ 
ding and such articles were taken and burned and the 
house fumigated. 

“The greatest difficulty occurred in the enforced 
moving of patients, to which strenuous objections were 
raised. One of the first was the case of a grocer who lived 
over his store, and whose daughter had contracted the 
disease. He barricaded his door and appeared in an 
upper window announcing that he would shoot any of¬ 
ficer who attempted to force an entrance. Volunteers 
were called for to move this patient, and practically the 
whole police force responded. When a detail armed with 
crowbars and implements for forcing entrance was sent 
to move the grocer’s daughter, he reconsidered and of¬ 
fered no resistance. After this no further difficulty was 
encountered. The result was a complete vindication of 


* About 15,000 persons were vaccinated at this time. 

[ 62 ] 


PUBLIC SERVICE 


these aggressive methods, and within a very short time 
the epidemic was completely stamped out.* 

“My father said that he used frequently to hear of 
small boys who had been named after him, and that be¬ 
fore the next Congressional election he was offered the 
Republican nomination, and the Democrats came to 
him and said that if he would accept the Republican 
nomination they would not put up anyone to run against 
him. This, however, he declined.” 

The J. C. Ayer Company agent in Brazil was a 
young man from Worcester, Massachusetts, who was 
known in Brazil as the “butterfly and bug catcher.” He 
became interested in and the companion of a young 
man, Jose Carlos Rodriguez, who, at the age of twenty- 
two, had acquired the distinction of the title of Doctor 
of Laws and was made Assistant Secretary of State of 
Brazil [?>., Private Secretary to Dom Pedro II]. 

He was a Republican and did not believe in the Bra¬ 
zilian government. He had some associates who sym¬ 
pathized with his views, and with them planned a coup 
d'etat, for which purpose it was necessary to get the 
Secretary of State away from Rio de Janeiro for a time. 
For this purpose Rodriguez persuaded him that his per¬ 
sonal attention was necessary in some distant province 
of Brazil, and so convinced him of the fact that the 
Secretary started on the journey, leaving the affairs of 
state in the hands of Rodriguez. After some two days 
time, when Rodriguez and his associates had got their 
plans well under way, the Secretary quite unexpectedly 


*The number of cases and deaths for the most critical period of the epi- 


demic tells its own story: 
Month 

Cases 

Deaths 

September 

2 I 2 

55 

October 

9+ 

30 

November 

6 

1 


[ 63 ] 




REMINISCENCES 


returned and of course the revolutionary project van¬ 
ished and its promoters with it. Rodriguez fled to the 
mountains, where he was concealed and fed and cared 
for, for about a year—our agent, meantime, being on 
the alert to get him on to an American vessel and away 
from the country. The opportunity came, and our agent 
got him aboard, concealed in a packing-case, with let¬ 
ters to the J. C. Ayer Company in Lowell. Rodriguez 
eventually blew into the office* with his letters and 
with very little knowledge of the English language. We 
immediately gave him employment in translating our 
printed matter into Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and 
French, with all of which languages he was familiar. 
He soon procured through the press in Boston and New 
York other work of the same kind, which gave him a 
fair living. 

While in concealment he read and studied the Bible, 
and became a Protestant. He continued his interest in 
the politics of Brazil and published a paper in Portu¬ 
guese exploiting his views, which he sent to Brazil for 
sale.*)* The demand for the weekly paper grew large. 
It became so great an annoyance to the Emperor 
and government, that they passed a law excluding it, 
which ended that enterprise. Later on the Emperor 
visited this country [in 1876] and sent for Rodriguez 
to visit him in New York, which he did. On this oc¬ 
casion the Emperor urged him strenuously to return to 
Brazil, promising to forgive him all his acts, reinstate 
him in every form of citizenship and to do much for 
him, saying that they needed men like him. Rodriguez 

*Dr. Rodriguez’s arrival in Lowell was as early as 1870, for Cornelia 
Wheaton Ayer wrote on March 7 of that year of his being with the family 
in Washington. 

f He had two papers, 0 Novo Mundo and Rivista Industrial. 

[ 64 ] 















































































PUBLIC SERVICE 

did not trust him and did not accept his invitation to 
return. 

Rodriguez was a very interesting man, intense in 
everything that interested him, and very entertaining; a 
most agreeable companion. An incident which occurred 
while my brother and several of us were breakfasting 
at a New York hotel is illustrative of his intensity of 
thought: Rodriguez was deeply engrossed in conversa¬ 
tion when he saw the colored waiter at his elbow pre¬ 
senting a long, finely printed menu. He glanced at it, 
saw the immensity of it and said to the darkey: “Bring 
me what you likes best!” 

Rodriguez went to London and practiced interna¬ 
tional law in connection with Brazil until the Emperor 
abdicated [in 1889], when he returned to his country, 
where he has been a very influential factor in the new 
government. [Dr. Rodriguez is now a well-known au¬ 
thority on Americana, owner and editor of the Jornal 
do Commercio , the largest newspaper in South America, 
and a most cultivated, philanthropic, and distinguished 
personage in Rio de Janeiro.] 

My brother was a most indefatigable worker. His 
business, extending practically over the world and put¬ 
ting him in personal communication with the principal 
nationalities in a business way, afforded him an immense 
field for study and work. For many years he wrote the 
Ayer’s American Almanack, which was issued in four¬ 
teen languages, with calendars adapted to the longitude 
of the different countries for which it was issued. He also 
wrote the newspaper and postal advertising matter and 
did much of the most important correspondence of the 
office. He was a great reader of authors like Darwin and 
Huxley, and a student of the sciences and history, with 
an intense interest in every new development. He under- 

[ 65 ] 


REMINISCENCES 

stood the Portuguese language, and at about the time he 
was taken sick was intending to visit Brazil, where the 
medicines were very popular. 

Until my brother’s guardians were appointed in 1877, 
our interests in the medicine business were owned two- 
thirds by him, one-third by me, and our investments were 
mainly made jointly in the same proportion, so that they 
could be taken care of from the office in one interest. 
At the time of the appointment of his guardians I bought 
one-sixth interest of the business from the estate, which 
made our interests in the business equal. Our interests 
in investments outside the medicine business were ad¬ 
justed by purchase and sale of properties from one to the 
other, and in this way were mainly separated, each hold¬ 
ing his property separate. When I bought the one-sixth 
interest, it was agreed that I should have entire man¬ 
agement of the business for an indefinite period or, at 
my option, as treasurer of the Company at a salary of 
$15,000 a year. I continued the management under this 
arrangement until June, 1893, w ^en, tired of the con¬ 
finement and responsibility, I retired in favor of Alonzo 
S. Coveil, formerly treasurer of the Tremont & Suffolk 
Mills, who succeeded me as treasurer of the Company 
and was subsequently succeeded by Mr. Rose. His suc¬ 
cessor was Dr. C. H. Stowell, who is now in charge of 
the business. All the above arrangements were made 
jointly by representatives of the estate and myself. 

When my brother was taken sick, I supplied the 
family with money from the J. C. Ayer Company for 
their expenses until the sum got so large that my attor¬ 
ney, A. P. Bonney, thought I was taking great risk in 
continuing to furnish them money, as when my brother 
should recover he might say I had done it without 
authority and repudiate it. I told Mrs. J. C. Ayer of this 

[ 66 ] 


PUBLIC SERVICE 


advice, which displeased her very much. She replied 
excitedly that where there was property in families it 
always made trouble and that it would in this case; con¬ 
sequently we might as well consider ourselves enemies, 
as well now as any time. I remonstrated with her on 
this, saying that I could see no reason for any disagree¬ 
ment or trouble between us on account of the money; 
that she ought to have all the money she wanted; it was 
only the question of the legal way in which it should be 
furnished to avoid the trouble and disagreement which 
she anticipated. She had apparently made up her mind 
that a disagreement was inevitable, and from this time 
acted accordingly. The guardians were appointed, con¬ 
sisting of Mrs. Ayer, Frederick Fanning Ayer, Benja¬ 
min Dean and Jacob Rogers. 

In my brother’s will* he had made me and his son 
Frederick Fanning his executors and trustees. After the 
feeling expressed by Mrs. Ayer in regard to our future 
relations, I did not care to act under the will and with¬ 
drew. Mrs. Ayer insisted that every member of the 
family and all old mutual friends interested should take 
sides, either with her or with me. Accordingly she went 
to William Parke and told him that he could not be 
friendly to me and be a friend of hers and that he must 
choose whose he would be. He promptly decided that 
he would be my friend anyhow, and regretted that he 
could n’t be hers at the same time. She went to Albert 
Cook with the same proposition, who promptly made 
the same decision saying: “I’ll stick by Uncle Fred, 
anyhow.” Parke and I were beneficiaries in my brother’s 
will, and Mrs. Ayer, desiring to cut us out, brought suit 
to break the will, which was decided in our favor. Mrs. 
Ayer’s attorney in this case was Judge J. G. Abbott and 

* James Cook Ayer died July 3, 1878. 

[ 67 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


mine was A. P. Bonney. Abbott brought the suit in his 
own way and tried it in his own way with several wit¬ 
nesses. Our side offered no witnesses, but Mr. Bonney 
argued the case with great power and effect, taking a 
different tack from what Abbott had anticipated; in fact 
he did not touch the case from any of the points Abbott 
had presented, to the latter’s great discomfiture. Abbott 
attempted to meetBonney’s argument, but utterly failed. 
Judge Brooks decided it in our favor and the will was 
executed as it had been made. 

In the year 1883, while on a visit to my sister-in-law, 
Mrs. N. P. Langford [formerly Emma Wheaton], in St. 
Paul, I met Miss Ellen Barrows Banning.* Mrs. Lang¬ 
ford was very anxious that I should marry, and had pre¬ 
sented to me a number of what she considered eligible 
women. One day I said to her: “What is the matter with 
Miss Ellen Banning?” I found that she considered her 
more highly than any girl of her acquaintance, though 
a little young for such responsibilities, and having previ¬ 
ously made up my own mind, I was pleased to be agreed 
with in this fashion. In the winter of 1883-84 she and her 
sister May visited me in Lowell, and took lessons at the 
School of Expression, in Boston. I became engaged to 
her on this visit and we were married July 13, 1884. We 
went immediately abroad, taking with us May Banning 
and my daughter, Ellen Ayer. I think we returned to our 
home in Lowell about November 1. 

* Ellen Barrows Banning - was born in Philadelphia, May 7, 1853, and was 
of English, Dutch and Irish descent. Her father was William Lowber 
Banning, and her mother, Mary Alicia Sweeney, daughter of Frederick 
Morgan Sweeney and Rachel Ormsby. Miss Ormsby’s mother was a Qua¬ 
keress of Pennsylvania ancestry, but both her father and her husband were 
natives of Ireland. 

Ellen Banning’s paternal great-grandfather, John Banning, was a mem¬ 
ber of the Delaware Assembly, Treasurer of Kent County, and one of the 
three electors who cast Delaware’s vote for George Washington as President 
at the first Electoral College in 1788. He married a well-known beauty, Eliz- 

[ 68 ] 





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HAUSER. FEE RES. propriktairf.s 


My cL&tI tyvg little cLtLic^-Lter Xoiust. 

lL yic.le <Je>iiYt- &.yigL C-it-t iitte 

leaise Uf-ritten. y>i~e abou-t you. CtyLdL the 

little Coicsi)z$- a hotel' iyou.7-g'otn.g-i^tb 

the big Qc^ecL'n, to bd-tke ayvd, lobux-k do cL 

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ftvuh XltCA. t-C is ti> ha. im~C bhe CouU'YibtbLGf c^yz^L. 

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days <2u.nl Ma-J>el w-ill Me ueitL yot*. fa tell 

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lb-ere a.Liv~e, cf **c uLtlt co>yu& Ley-e 

Some cLccy ccy^cL £&e iLey-n* <z>icL 2 rl' Lf/ir 

^ o lL~yi Ca, 2 . yt,s ClU arcru^KcL t>Le louLe bLeJt 

b'liyv w«.y tty Lyilo trLe aloiods. 


Tke ?<? here a-re v-eiry c,u.r-'tov.s. 


(fyo-vu ClOudL^t u 'YisJie *~s£Tcl'j*> cL t/Le yn. Jo &<uzctr& 

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tooled-, 

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t-kenr* y^y^t Ktk*.. 

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C-<z>i >tot g*et CLu-rutie to y~eaxL ub t> yo^< 








Cfoit-r sister a,*icL the olhey- IclA. l£kr 


vS BytcC Cots ojt Lo V-£ Terr- you- - oytcL T %o~ccyJb to 

beep* cl>ixL Jczss yyitf little 2?hc^t bs 

OH, tize 3€& sSbo~r€, 


F A 


n e 


r. 

















SECOND MARRIAGE 

abeth Alford Cassons. Their house at Dover, built in 1776, is still in use. 
His son John (Ellen Banning’s grandfather) was graduated from Princeton 
in 1810, and married Elizabeth Lowber, a descendant of Peter Lowber, of 
Amsterdam. 

William L. Banning practiced law in Philadelphia for a time, and was 
a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1845, but i n 1855 moved to 
St. Paul, Minnesota, where he w r as a member of the Minnesota House of 
Representatives in 1861. He served for two years in the Civil War with the 
rank of captain. 

His special achievement was the building of a railroad from St. Paul to 
Duluth, which was conceived as one link in a system to connect the head 
of navigation in the Great Lakes with the Pacific Ocean. He devoted many 
years of his life to this project, involving, as it did, the procurement of land 
grants from Congress, a trip to Europe to float the bonds (made abortive 
by the Franco-Prussian War), and other financing in which he was greatly 
aided by President Thompson of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The 
original charter was granted to the Nebraska & Lake Superior Railroad 
Company in 1857. In 1861 this name was changed to Lake Superior & 
Mississippi Railroad Company. Construction was begun in 1868 and the 
entire line of 156 miles was completed and formally opened in 1870, having 
cost slightly over $7,000,000. Mr. Banning was at that time president of the 
company. 

In 1872 the line was leased to the Northern Pacific Railway Company. 
The financial embarrassment of the latter road in 18 74 led to the cancellation 
of this lease, and the Lake Superior & Mississippi Company defaulted on 
its bonds in 1875 and in 1877 was sold to its bondholders under foreclosure 
proceedings. A reorganization was at once effected under the name St. Paul 
& Duluth Railroad Company. This new road was finally absorbed by the 
Northern Pacific Railway Company in 1900. 

The first locomotive that went over a completed section of the road was 
christened by Ellen Banning with tv/o glasses of water, — one from Lake 
Superior and one from San Pedro Harbor, Cal., sent by her uncle, Phineas 
Banning, — in these words: 

“With the waters of the Pacific Ocean in my right hand and the waters 
of Lake Superior in my left, invoking the Genius of Progress to bring to¬ 
gether with iron bands the two great commercial systems of the globe, I 
dedicate this engine to the use of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Rail¬ 
road, and name it William L. Banning.” 


[ 69 ] 


VIII 

THE AMERICAN WOOLEN COMPANY 


I N June, 1885, the Washington Mills, a large woolen 
corporation in Lawrence, failed, and the mills, water 
power, and machinery were sold at auction. I was a 
stockholder in the failed mills and felt that they 
had been slaughtered by the selling house [Harding, 
Colby & Company—now William Whitman Co., Inc. 
with the intention of buying them at auction. I attendee 
the sale and found the selling house to be the only 
bidder. Determined that they should not have the mills 
for nothing, I bid against them and bought the mills 
for $328,000. The mills were all old and several of them 
were nine stories high and too narrow for modern ma¬ 
chinery. After investigation by engineers and mill ex¬ 
perts I decided that it would not pay to put machinery 
in these mills, and to build new ones in their places. 
The machinery was sold out for about the sum I had 
paid for the whole plant. The mills were pulled down, 
and the most modern mills of that time were put in their 
places and stocked with the latest machinery, — partly 
English, partly American. 

This enterprise proved larger than I wanted to shoul¬ 
der myself, and the corporation of the Washington 
Mills Company was formed, with $1,000,000 capital. 
(At date of this writing, June, 1913, its capital is 
$60,000,000.*) A few friends took small amounts of 
stock and I took the balance. With this capital it was 
impossible to stock the mills with machinery and ma¬ 
terial to run them, and I applied to the legislature for 
power to increase the capital to $2,000,000. This was 

* I.e., the capital of the American Woolen Company, of which it was the 
nucleus. 

[ 70 ] 




THE AMERICAN WOOLEN COMPANY 

refused because of the jealousy of our legislators in re¬ 
gard to large capitalizations. I finally got permission 
to increase the capitalization by $1,000,000 preferred 
stock, which I took myself, my associates not believing 
that we could prosecute the business on that capital. 
After it was found a success, the legislature authorized 
the conversion of the preferred into common stock and 
additional issue of $500,000 common stock, which I 
took myself. 

Having seen the old corporation ruined, as I believed, 
by the selling house, I organized the new one with the 
understanding that we would have no selling house but 
sell our goods direct to the consumer. This was a new 
departure in which few capitalists had confidence, hence 
my small list of stockholders; but the plan was success¬ 
ful—after which many other concerns followed suit. 

The first manager of the corporation was Thomas 
Sampson, who . . . proved unequal to the task and was 
succeeded by Frank [Francis H.] Jealous.* Our con¬ 
tract with Sampson was for three years at $25,000 a 
year, — a large salary for those times. About one year of 
the time had expired when we determined on making 
a change. How to get rid of Sampson without paying 
him for two more years, and also how to do it without 
giving him an opportunity to do serious damage to the 
engines or other large machinery, was a question. I had 
told the directors of Sampson’s shortcomings and my 
determination to get rid of him, and had a directors’ 
meeting called a week ahead, anticipating that I might 
want to treat the Sampson matter, which matured in this 
way. Jealous, who lived in Lawrence, had been con¬ 
ferred with and was ready to take Sampson’s place on 
call. When I found fault with Sampson, he had a way 

* Now agent of the Rochdale Mills, Rochdale, Mass. 

[ 71 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


of offering his resignation. After arranging the directors’ 
meeting, and with Jealous on call ready to step into 
Sampson’s place, I had an interview with Sampson, in 
which he attempted to bluff me by threatening to resign, 
and I asked him to write his resignation, which he did 
and handed me. I told him I was not prepared to treat 
with him on the subject, but that I felt in duty bound to 
submit it to the directors, that they were to meet two 
days hence and that I wished he would meet with them 
and discuss the question, which he did. 

At the meeting I handed in his resignation and, ac¬ 
cording to a prior understanding, a move was instantly 
made and seconded to accept it, and it was so voted. 
He remarked that this was rather sudden and said: “I 
suppose you would like to have me take care of the 
mills until you get someone to take my place,” to which 
I said: “Mr. Sampson, that is already arranged, and as 
soon as this vote was passed, Mr. Jealous was telephoned 
to, to take charge of the mills, and I have no doubt he is 
there now.” Sampson said: “But am I not going to be 
allowed to go into the mills again?” I replied: “No, all 
have orders not to admit you after Mr. Jealous takes 
possession.” “But, I have my private property there — 
the keys of my desk, etc.” To which I answered: “Mr. 
Jealous will deliver your personal things to you.” “And 
I am to have no more communication with the mills?” 
“Certainly not.” This was our coup d'etat. 

Mr. Jealous ran the mills for a short time with the 
assistance of Mr. Wood,* then in charge of the selling, 
after which Mr. Wood relieved Mr. Jealous and took 
entire charge of the mills as well as the selling. 


* William Madison Wood, who later married Frederick Ayer’s daughter, 
Ellen Wheaton Ayer, and is now President of the American Woolen Com¬ 
pany. 


[ 72 ] 


THE AMERICAN WOOLEN COMPANY 

To create a new system of disposing of such a pro¬ 
duct was attended with many difficulties. A store was 
hired in New York and an old merchant employed to 
conduct the business at that end. Several men were 
employed in this position before a successful one was 
found, but this branch of the business, as well as the 
manufacturing, gradually came into business shape and 
has proved a great success, as has been shown by being 
adopted by many other manufacturing concerns.* One 
of the difficulties to be overcome in this system of sell¬ 
ing was the fact that no manufacturing concern had 
capital enough to do its business without borrowing 
money, and the system of borrowing was for the com¬ 
pany or individual to give its note endorsed by the sell¬ 
ing house, and without a selling house, where was the 
money to come from*? In our case, I covered that gap by 
endorsing the notes of the Company personally, and at 
times I was on the Washington Mills Company’s paper 
for as much as $6,000,000.1 felt safe in doing this be¬ 
cause the amount of accounts receivable, with what I 
could easily furnish from my own resources, would take 
care of the notes as fast as they came due. 

It was understood by the selling house fraternity gen¬ 
erally that it was my intention to adopt this system, and 
as it was an invasion of their system, and if successful 
seriously threatened their future, they appear to have 

* “ Office of Frederick Ayer , Lowell, Mass., Oct . 31", 1889 

My dear Son. [James] . . . Wish you would talk with Wood about our 
credit system. We can’t afford to furnish all Jerusalem capital to fail on. 
To the failures reported yesterday add Anspach $2,514.00, and others less 
important and you will see — if continued — we must follow their example. 
J. C. Ayer Co. has not lost as much by failures in ten years. These three 
would pay for all the dinamo’s & new twisters & machinery that Wood is 
crying for, and I don’t dare to order. 

Yr father 


[ 73 ] 


F. Ayer.’* 


REMINISCENCES 


combined in the determination to prevent my borrow¬ 
ing through their influence in the banks.* This was 
shown when I applied to a bank for a loan during the 
early period of the business. I was universally met with 
the question: “ Who is your selling house %” My answer 
that we sold our own goods and had no selling house 
brought the reply, “We only loan to manufacturing con¬ 
cerns with the endorsement of a selling house.” When 
I showed them that my personal estate was many times 
more than the sum I was endorsing for the Company 
and that I also held the assets of the Company avail¬ 
able for its debts, it was difficult for them to find reasons 
for not accommodating me, and one by one they yielded 
until, as above stated, they held my paper for around 
J6,ooo,ooo. 

In the rush of industrial combinations, in the year 
1899, Mr. Wood proposed making our Washington 
Mills Company a nucleus for an organization of some 
of the woolen industries of the country, and the Ameri¬ 
can Woolen Company is the result.*j* In this organization 
I was made president, and Wood active manager. After 
holding the office of president for several years, in the 
spring of 1905 I withdrew in favor of Wood, who still 
holds the presidency, and I remain as director and mem¬ 
ber of the executive committee. 

I cannot leave this subject without saying that Mr. 
Wood has managed this complicated and most difficult 

* Having repeatedly been refused credit at one of the largest banks in Bos¬ 
ton (even with his own endorsement and personal collateral), Frederick Ayer 
finally went to Mr. T. Jefferson Coolidge, who was one of its largest stock¬ 
holders. Mr. Coolidge listened to his story, saw the justice of his claim, and 
told him to go back and see the president of the bank in half an hour. Just 
as he was reentering the bank he caught a glimpse of Mr. Coolidge com¬ 
ing out, and found the president anxious to lend him all the money he 
wanted. 

f Incorporated in New Jersey in 1899, an d in Massachusetts in 1916. 

[ 7 + ] 


THE AMERICAN WOOLEN COMPANY 


business with perfect success. I say “difficult” because 
Major Henry Lee Higginson and other prominent 
business men said it was too complicated ever to suc¬ 
ceed. Higginson was so confident in his prophecy that 
his company [Lee, Higginson & Company] would not 
handle the stock of the Woolen Company. The Com¬ 
pany had $5,000,000 of its preferred stock in its treas¬ 
ury, of which Higginson knew, and after we had been 
running about two years he came to me and said: “Why 
don’t you put out that $5,000,000 of preferred stock? 
It will save your borrowing just so much money.” I 
said: “Because you and men like you haven’t confi¬ 
dence to distribute it.” “ Oh well,” he said, “ I used to 
think the concern would never succeed, but Wood has 
made it a success and that settles that question.” 


[ 75 ] 


IX 

A YOUTHFUL AGE 


HfcFTER our trip to Europe in 1884 we returned 
/ \ to Lowell, where we lived most happily with- 
/ \ out any special events, except the birth of our 

^ *“three children [Beatrice Banning, January 12, 
1886; Frederick, May 7, 1888; and Mary Katharine, 
September 3,1890]. In February, 1896, we took the four 
youngest children to Europe, where we remained until 
June, 1898.* We returned to Lowell, where we stayed 
until the fall of 1899, w ^en we moved to Boston. 

RECORD OF LATER YEARS BY HIS DAUGHTER BEATRICE 

It was hard to persuade my father to write this story. 
We started it on the train, coming home from California 
in 1908, writing on telegraph blanks, paper book cov¬ 
ers, or anything that came to hand; and from that day 
to the day in 1915 when it was finished he would always 
smilingly say, whenever I suggested a little dictation: 
“Quit, quit, my daughter; you are making a joke of 
me!” He was so modest that he thought it not worth 
writing. I could never get him to bring the story up to 
date — “You all know it; it would not be interesting.” 
Yet his own brief words give the best picture of him that 
could be painted. 

My first distinct recollection of my father is in Low¬ 
ell, at 149 Pawtucket Street. He worked all day at the 
J. C. Ayer Company, and spent only an hour at home 
at noon; but there was always time to lead me around 
the driveway on his horse, straighten out some carpen- 

* About a year was spent in Paris, and one winter in a dahabiyeh on the 
Nile. 


[ 76 ] 




er~ 

< C y^r~crm /n/ ffy eri^ tiim-t fi -^cbri^t^a-ri. f./Sfi ¥ 




A YOUTHFUL AGE 


tering problem for Frederick, or to take Katharine on 
his knee and explain to her the mystery of the finding 
and cutting of his garnet shirt-studs. 

On Sundays the big table in the long dining-room 
was pulled out to its full length, and there were many 
guests. James and Charles, home for the week-end, al¬ 
ways sat on either side of “the Governor,” both talking 
all the time. Many of the old friends of his story came 
to that table: Mr. A. P. Bonney, the Reverend Robert 
Court, D.D., who told wonderful fairy stories and once 
sent home to Scotland for a barrel of oat-cakes for us; 
Dr. Moses Greely Parker, the first man to photograph 
lightning, and Theodore M. Davis, lawyer and Egyp¬ 
tologist— always rather terrifying to me as the only 
one of all my father’s friends who called him “Ayer.” 
If, after dinner, there was some music my father was 
always delighted. 

On the Sundays when there were no guests, we gen¬ 
erally went to Andover to the Woods’ for dinner,—some 
driven by Henry Smith in the surrey or double sleigh, 
and one passenger by my father in the buggy or cutter. 
We would come home after dark, sometimes with the 
snow piled high above our heads on both sides, and (as 
I thought) with the stars to guide us on the road. 

Father established a Boston office in the Ames Build¬ 
ing, where the American Woolen Company office was lo¬ 
cated, in 1897. We spent the summers of 1899-1901 at 
Little Boar’s Head, New Hampshire. There, at the age 
of seventy-six, he took up four-in-hand driving— a pas¬ 
time which he continued with enjoyment for several 
years. In 1902 we went to Catalina Island, California, 
where his diversions were riding, swimming, and fishing. 
The same pursuits occupied him the following season 
at Buzzards Bay, as well as sailing in all weathers with 

[ 77 ] 



REMINISCENCES 


Frederick, and driving four-in-hand. It was here he 
bought his favorite horse, “Newport,” whom from that 
time on he rode practically every day until within a few 
weeks of his death. He took particular delight in his abil¬ 
ity to handle “Newport,” since the previous owner, who 
had brought him all the way from Kentucky, had been 
unable to do so. California attracted him again in later 
years, and the winter of 1914-15 was spent at Pasadena. 

After living several winters in rented houses and ho¬ 
tels in Boston, he built the house at 395 Commonwealth 
Avenue, commencing it in 1900, and with character¬ 
istic thoroughness devoted much time to the planning 
of all details. As a result the construction and equip¬ 
ment of the house were practically perfect, though the 
architectural results were a disappointment to him. At 
about the same time the family began to look for a sum¬ 
mer place near town.We found the “Farm” in Newton, 
and my father built a new house and greenhouses on it 
and gave the place to my mother. Ever since their en¬ 
gagement, when, in answer to the question of what gift 
she would like best from him, she had said “roses,” he 
always showered her with flowers. The greenhouses at 
Lowell had been built for her; and George Page, our 
gardener, was brought down from there and installed at 
the Farm. One huge yellow climbing rose was consid¬ 
ered the finest of all our plants, but my mother always 
wore pink roses. 

The Farm was a never-failing pleasure. My father’s 
affection for his friends and ours, combined with my 
mother’s gift for entertaining, made our family life so 
happy that we seldom cared to visit; always preferring 
our friends to come to us if they would,—to ride, to 
sail, and to join in the big Thanksgiving and Christmas 
dinners, so full of grand surprises. 

[ 78 ] 



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\ 


A YOUTHFUL AGE 

In 1905 he bought the Robbins place at Prides 
Crossing, where a year later he built his summer home, 
“Avalon.” The removal of the old house and the con¬ 
struction of the new one was accomplished during the 
eight winter months. He spent all his remaining sum¬ 
mers and the winter of 1916 at “Avalon,” taking the 
greatest interest and pleasure in its development. 

In spite of the fact that he had supposedly divested 
himself of some of his business cares about the time he 
moved to Prides Crossing, he continued to go to his 
office daily when in Boston, and three or four times a 
week from Prides. It was about this time that, in associa¬ 
tion with his friend Mr. Longyear, he interested himself 
in the development of coal on the Island of Spitsbergen to 
the north of Norway. Neither of them expected that this 
venture would prove as slow and troublesome as it later 
became;nevertheless, Father took the liveliest interest in 
any news from the property, whether good or bad, and 
was as determined as Mr. Longyear to see it through.* 

As illustrative of his modesty, he refused to be driven 
to town by motor, and permitted only a Ford truck to 
take him to and from the train. Nothing was too good 
for his family or guests, but for himself he desired only 
the simplest and most inconspicuous necessities. Amid 
the beautiful surroundings of the home he had created, 
his chief pleasure was found in the intimate association 
of his wife and children and their friends. Which of us 
children can fail to recall the picture of “Sir Frederick” 
and “Ellie” walking arm in arm through the gardens, 
stopping occasionally to ponder some present beauty 
or plan some improvement,— for my father’s thoughts 
were always of the future. 

* The history of this joint undertaking is fully set forth in Mr. Longyear’s 
publication America in Spitsbergen. 

[ 79 ] 


REMINISCENCES 


His life at “Avalon” was one of wonderful vitality 
and activity. Frequently, during the pest of brown-tail 
moths, I have seen him climb to the top of a high ladder 
to pluck the caterpillars off the vines. We all remem¬ 
ber the day, not many years ago, when he fell out of the 
top of a tree from which he was sawing the dead limbs, 
and was very angry because Ellen Wood tried to help 
him up—and another occasion, in 1916, when, on one 
of his early morning rows with William (whom he had 
taken along to oblige my mother), the boat upset, and 
William, instead of being the rescuer, was the rescued. 

His extraordinary youthfulness of mind is indicated 
by a letter, written to my husband in 1917, in which he 
urged new means to win the Great War,— particularly 
the adoption and development of the tank.* His quick 
vision and keen judgment took in its possibilities long 
before it had appealed to a great many professional sol¬ 
diers. These same traits are also demonstrated in the 
versatility with which he understood and discussed all 
manner of subjects, however foreign to the interests 
which had always crowded his life. 

So to the end he was getting the full enjoyment from 
every passing day; and if he had any aversion to death, 
it was simply because of the pain it would bring to his 
family and the fact that it would put a period to his 
long life of interesting and useful achievement. 

Frederick Ayer diedas he had lived—surrounded 
by those he loved, and planning for the future. 


* George S. Patton, Jr., to whom the letter was written, afterwards became 
a colonel in the Tank Corps, was severely wounded in action near Cheppy, 
France, September 26, 19x8, and was awarded the Distinguished Service 
Cross. 

JAt Thomasville, Ga., March 18, 1918. 

[ 8 ° ] 












































Map of region where Frederick Ayer was horn 



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APPENDIX 

















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APPENDIX 


I. Ayer Family 

History of the Fanning Family , by Walter Frederic Brooks. 
Worcester, 1905. 

History of Middlesex County , edited by D. Hamilton Hurd. Phila¬ 
delphia, 1890. 

(Memoir and portrait of Frederick Ayer.) 

Reports of the Board of Health and of the Consulting Physicians ? 
Lowell, Mass., 1871. 

Reminiscences of "James C. Ayer , by Charles Cowley, iii ed. 
Lowell, Mass., n.d. [1879?]. 

History of the Treman, Tremaine , Truman Family in America; 
with the related families of Alack , Dey , Board and Ayers , by 
Ebenezer Mack Treman and Murray E. Poole. [Ithaca, 
N. Y.], 1901. 

N.B. A genealogy of the Ayer Family is now in course of preparation 
under the direction of Frederick Fanning Ayer. 


II. Fanning Family 

History of the Fanning Family. (See above.) 

(Memoir of Thomas Fanning, great-grandfather of Frederick Ayer, etc.) 


III. Cook Family 

A Genealogy of Families hearing the Name Gf Cooke , or Cook , by 
James Cook. Lowell, Mass., 1882. 

(The author was Frederick Ayer’s uncle.) 


IV. Herrick Family 

Herrick Genealogy , by Gen. Jedediah Herrick, revised, etc., by 
Lucius C. Herrick, M.D. Columbus, Ohio, 1885. 

[ 83 ] 


APPENDIX 


V. Wheaton Family 

Reunion and History of Pompey, by Publication Committee. 
Pompey, N. Y., 1875. 

(Memoir of Augustus Wheaton.) 

Publications of Onondaga Historical Association. Syracuse, N. Y., 
1910. 

(Memoir of Charles Augustus Wheaton.) 

Genealogy of One Line of the Converse , IVheaton , Edmands and 
Cooledge Families , edited by William G. Hill. Malden, Mass., 
1887. 

New Milford and Bridgewater , Connecticut , 1703—1882 , by 
Samuel Orcutt. Hartford, Conn., 1882. 

Vital Records , Rehoboth, Mass. 

Bristol County ( Mass .) Deeds and Probate Records. 

VI. Birdseye Family 

Reunion and History of Pompey. (See above.) 

(Memoir and portrait of Victory Birdseye.) 

Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Biography of New York. New York, 
1883. 

(Memoir and portrait of Victory Birdseye.) 


VII. Banning Family 

Poor s Manual , 1888. 

(History of St. Paul Sc Duluth Railroad Co.) 

Princeton University , General Catalogue , 174.6—1896. Princeton, 
1896. 

History of Delaware , by J. Thomas Scharf. Baltimore, 1888. 

History of the State of Delaware , by Henry C. Conrad. Wil¬ 
mington, 1908. 


[ 84 ] 


APPENDIX 


Letter from M. K. Burgner, Clerk, House of Representatives, 
Harrisburg, Pa., June 3, 1921, to Frederick Ayer, Jr. 

Letter from Solon J. Buck, Superintendent, Minnesota Histori¬ 
cal Society, St. Paul, August 26, 1921, to Frederick Ayer, Jr. 


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